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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28245216">The Dirac equation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuvolisa/pseuds/SomethingAboutTheStars'>SomethingAboutTheStars (nuvolisa)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Finds Out First, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alya Césaire Bashing, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Asexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Awesome Nino Lahiffe, Bad Parent Emilie Agreste, Bad Parent Tom Dupain, Bio-dad Bruce Wayne, Biological Parent Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Butterfly Lila Rossi, Coma, Comatose Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Eating Disorders, Except for my babies, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Being Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Identity Reveal, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Redemption, Gen, Good Parent Sabine Cheng, I mean pretty much everybody knows but that's mInOr, Injured Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Lila Rossi Bashing, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Major Character Injury, Manipulative Lila Rossi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Deserves Better, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Needs a Break, Minor Character Death, Minor Nino Lahiffe/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, No Sex, Not Beta Read, One-Sided Attraction, Original Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur Child(ren), Parent Nathalie Sancoeur, Peacock Emilie Agreste, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Bruce Wayne, Protective Sabine Cheng, Sabine Cheng Knows, Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain Know, Sick Nathalie Sancoeur, Suicidal Thoughts, The teens are idiots tho, Time Travel, how else is she supposed to have fUCKING BLUE EYES, yes i INDEED have daddy issues, yes it's fucking important, yes mari's dad is indeed batman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:08:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>41,748</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28245216</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuvolisa/pseuds/SomethingAboutTheStars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Dirac equation says that if two systems interact for a certain amount of time and then get divided, they can't be described as two distinct systems anymore, but somehow they become a singular system. What happens to one of them keeps on affecting the other, even kilometers or light-years apart.</p><p>Marinette's life was too much. She always knew this, at least from the very first day she wore the ladybug miraculous. So, it was no surprise to her when the accident happened. Except for the fact, she doesn't even know the consequences of this event. Because her life was never normal to begin with, and her mother's secrets are bound to be revealed, especially the ones that are so major that could change her life forever.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste &amp; Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Aeon Hill | Uncanny Valley &amp; Jessica Keynes, Alec Cataldi/Nadja Chamack, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe (past), Alya Césaire/Original Male Character(s), Batfamily Members &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Caline Bustier/Majordome Jean | Butler Jean, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Bruce Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Lê Chiến Kim &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Nino Lahiffe &amp; Everyone, Olympia Hill/Barbara Keynes, Sabine Cheng &amp; Bruce Wayne, Sabine Cheng/Bruce Wayne, lila rossi/the consequence of her actions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>255</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Fallen angel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blacklux/gifts">Blacklux</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlbOP/gifts">AlbOP</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/th4t_cifeR/gifts">th4t_cifeR</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>By now you migh have undestood that I wasn't held enough as a child. Anyways, this is my first story here on this site and also one of the first stories that I've written in English, let me know if there are any grammatical/syntactic errors, thank you. I'll try to update as frequent as possible, but school is hard this year so I'll try my very best but I don't promise you much.<br/>Some trigger warnings in case you haven't seen them already:<br/>Anxiety and panic attacks<br/>Suicidal thoughts<br/>Eating disorders<br/>Injuries and blood<br/>Comatose state<br/>Bullying and verbal abuse</p><p>I hope you'll enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She simply didn’t have enough sleep to be dealing with this. She felt her whole body ache as her earrings beeped softly. She swinged between the taller buildings, usually used to the feeling. Every centimetre of her body trembled for the tiredness of her muscles. The last four days, exactly three weeks after Hawkmoth’s fall, a new group of villains started roaming around the city. The fourteen years old girl was expected to show up, even though her work had ended when they retrieved the butterfly and peacock miraculous after Hawkmoth surrendered. The sound of her magical garments completely made her lose her focus and, before she knew, she was detransformed, falling from apparently about eight meters high. Panic arose in her whole body and somehow, she didn’t scream. It all felt too right, too peaceful for her to interrupt. Maybe she wanted this. As she hit the ground below her, all her memories came up to her mind. Her classmates from school, her closest friends, Adrien, and then her childhood, the hours spent dressing up and drawing her favorite cartoon outfits, baking with her mum and dad, her friends in elementary school, every little thing. Her mother, Sabine, a beautiful woman; her father, Tom, a strong good man; her little brother, Jeremie, a cute and playful young boy. Maybe she wasn’t going to be a burden anymore. She was pretty sure she felt her left arm try its best to soften the blow. Still, she was free falling from a 3 stories building. Her body finally collapsed on her left arm, rolling on the street below. Marinette’s eyes closed, as a small group of people who had watched her detransform into her civilian self, rushed to her side calling an ambulance. Nobody said anything when a red light surrounded her face, taking away her earrings.</p><hr/><p>Sabine was coming home from taking Jeremie to his football practice. It had been a quite peaceful afternoon, hadn’t it been that her daughter was out again and a supervillain was around creating havoc. Nothing she was new to, until she heard her phone cell. There was a soft voice speaking from the other side of the phone. It felt a little sad.</p><p>«Hello, Suyin Cheng?»</p><p>«Yes, that’s me.»</p><p>«Saint Julien de Le Mans Hospital, I am sorry to inform you that your daughter, Marinette Cheng, had an incident and has fallen in a coma.»</p><p>Her world just shattered. Her life, who she had managed to recover after the accident fourteen years ago, seemed to stop completely again. Her heart pounded in her ears, as her hands trembled and she collapsed on her car’s seat. Her joy, her beautiful bluebell, who had always had her father's eyes but her attitude, was now on the verge between life and death, not even in the worst case scenario she could've imagined this. Was her father's influence at fault? Or was it something else? She had slowly understood what made her little girl so frail, so isolated and miserable. She couldn't help her in anyway, especially if she was in some kind of danger from that villain. She really felt like the most horrible parent a girl could ever hope for.</p><p>«I’ll be there in a minute» she answered, shutting off her phone and driving as fast as possible to the hospital. She was careful, though, not wanting to cause any more damages by driving with tears in her eyes.</p><p>«Call Tom» she said to the vocal assistant of her phone.</p><p>-Now calling Tom-</p><p>«Hey honey, is everything alright?»</p><p>«Tom…» she cried.</p><p>«What happened, Sabine?»</p><p>«It’s Mari, she… has had an incident, they say she could be in a coma. Can you go pick Jemie up, please?»</p><p>«Don’t worry about these things, darling, I’ll take care of everything, go see your daughter. I’m closing the bakery in half an hour.»</p><p>«Ok, I’m leaving you. And do not tell Jemie anything, we’ll discuss when I’ll get home.»</p><p>She parked the car near the entrance of the hospital, running as fast as she could to the reception. There were just a couple of people ahead of her, so she stood in line, trying to hold in her tears, without success. A nurse that was passing by noticed her, and approached her with sorrowful eyes.</p><p>«Is everything ok, madame?» she asked.</p><p>«Yes… no actually, my daughter just had an incident of some sort, I’ve come here to see her.»</p><p>«Suyin Cheng? Can I see your ID card or your licence?» the woman asked.</p><p>«Yes, here» Sabine took her licence from her small purse. The woman examined it, before gesturing to follow her.</p><p>They walked across the building, before taking the stairs to the third floor. The corridor was much more quiet than the three before, with barely anyone talking and the lonely sound of a vending machine echoing through the walls. The third door, which had a 49 taped over it, was the one that the nurse opened silently, before letting Sabine step in. The room wasn’t very decorated. There was a metallic table put against the left wall, with a small wooden crucifix hanged over it.  On the other side, a chair that looked so uncomfortable that Sabine would’ve never sat on it if not necessary, a white sink and a very old tv on a shelf upon it. The walls were of a light grey tint, and the atmosphere of helplessness of the location was only amplified by the beeping sound coming from the heart rate monitor. In the middle of the room, below the big windows, laid her unconscious daughter, covered in bandages and smelling of blood. Her hair was let loose under the weight of her head and her face seemed stuck in a grimace of pain. Sabine couldn’t help herself, letting out a loud sob, as the gentle nurse cupped her shoulder with her hand.</p><p>«I’m sorry, madame Cheng, your daughter has broken both her legs and her left arm, as well as a cerebral concussion. We still don’t know if she’ll make it to tomorrow. But, even after that, we have only a 50% chance of her surviving. She looks severely underweight and also could have some sort of deficiency, she looks very pale and her bones and fingernails look like they could be broken just by staring at them. Does she have any mental illnesses we need to know about?»</p><p>Sabine’s heart broke a little more. «No, I suggested that she should have seen a psychologist, but she always refused, she always told me she didn’t have the time. Oh, god, Mari, you should’ve been more careful.»</p><p>«I am so sorry, madame Cheng, I’ll take you to the doctor’s office so that he can tell you all about your daughter’s conditions and have the usual chat about donating organs.» The duo slowly walked outside the room, the mother still crying for the small, helpless little daughter she was leaving behind.</p><hr/><p>The very moment she took away Ladybug's earrings, Tikki launched herself through the city, towards the Agreste mansion, the small pieces of jewellery in her tiny paws as she cried and went through the wall that divided the outside from Adrien’s room. He was sitting at the piano, slowly playing a too familiar song.</p><p>The first one to notice her presence was Plagg. «Hey sugarcube, what are you doing he… are those the ladybug miraculous?»</p><p>Tikki nodded and finally Adrien acknowledged her presence. «Tikki?»</p><p>«I’m sorry if I showed up so unadvised, Adrien, but M-Ladybug will not be a superhero for a little while… I hope.»</p><p>«Don’t worry about that, but… is everything ok?» the blond boy asked.</p><p>«Yes… well, no. When you defeated that villain today, my owner started heading home but she was on the top of a building and time run out and… she fell. Someone discovered her identity, and they called an ambulance. I gave her my protection, she will surely not die tonight thanks to my good luck spell but I don’t know how things will go, I’m sorry. She’s been overworking herself lately, I should’ve advised her better.»</p><p>The color faded away from the boy's face. Between everything he was expecting, this occurence was the one he thought about the most, yet the one he hoped would never happen for real. He knew it was plausible, he had seen how skinny and frail she had become lately, the dark eyebags and her eyes constantly on the verge pf tears, as if she had been keeping everything to herself. Trying her hardest to not make her emotions have the best of her, she had the opposite outcome. And it could be dangerous. Thanks to God, she hadn't been akumatized, but now it was useless. She was gone.</p><p>Adrien was already tearing up. «Ladybug… it can’t be. First, my mother, then the love of my life. I can’t protect Paris without her, I… I love her. What can I do for her? I don’t even know who she is.»</p><p>«I’ve thought a lot about this. She has tried her very best to keep this a secret, but now other people know her identity… I would tell you, but it’s her identity so it should be her decision whether to tell you or not. Anyway, the miracle box and the grimoire are in danger. We’ll have to take it to safety, before anyone can find them, especially Hawkmoth. But how can we do so without you revealing your identities to each other?»</p><p>Adrien fell deep in thought, when suddenly a light appeared in his room. A small pink haired girl in a baby blue spandex suit closed the portal behind herself with her umbrella.</p><p>«Bunnyx! What are you doing here?» he asked, lifting himself up.</p><p>She smirked tauntingly. «There’s no time to waste, Chat Noir. I’m here to fix things up, come with me.»</p><hr/><p>«Madame Cheng, my pleasure. I’m doctor Vernè, the doctor that just visited your daughter. I want to discuss about your daughter’s therapy. If she doesn’t die tonight, we might be able to partially restore her physical abilities, she could even walk. It won’t cost anything, but it might be risky if we need to touch the nerves. Is it ok?»</p><p>«I- I think so.» Sabine was still trembling. Her battered hands were so in distress, they made her whole legs and arms quiver.</p><p>«We have informed her father, once we have both confirms we can proceed.» The doctor got up, probably to escort her back in her daughter’s room, when Sabine straightened up, more dazed and confused than before.</p><p>«Wait!» she almost yelled. «You said that you informed the father, but my husband hasn’t got any calls and was as surprised as me to find it out. There… there must be an error.»</p><p>«Madame Cheng, we called the father signed up in our documents» the doctor replied, a hint of uneasiness and curiosity in his low voice.</p><p>Sabine stood up, striking her best formal demanding pose. «Could- could I see my daughter’s personal informations, please? I’d like to check for any error.»</p><p>The doctor nodded, slowly proceeding to throw together different papers, then handing them to the woman. The folder had now about forty pages.</p><p>«I’ll have to ask you to get somewhere else to check on them, miss. I need to visit other patients, those are copies so it should be fine to keep them. Goodbye, madame.»</p><p>Sabine walked away from the office, and arrived to her daughter’s room. She caressed gently her fragile face, planted a soft kiss wet from tears on her head, then sat down on the uncomfortable-looking chair as she slowly started looking through every single one of the documents.</p><p>She searched for almost an hour, when finally she found her contacts. Hers were perfect: Suyin Cheng, born in Beijing, about 34 years ago, her phone number was exact and all her contacts were right and  up-to-date. The father’s, instead, were a little messed up: they should’ve shown Tom Dupain, who had signed the adoption papers when little Marinette was just three years old. Yet, her biological father’s name and contacts showed up. That was dangerous, Sabine didn’t want anyone knowing her daughter’s father was someone so powerful, she didn’t want her daughter to have any enemies. But then, if Tomas firmed that papers eleven years before, how come he wasn’t even mentioned in the papers?</p><p>How was it possible that he had adopted her without ever becoming her real father?</p><p>And, most importantly, why was Bruce Wayne’s name still on her parentage papers?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Knots</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Marinette is dreaming. Bruce is confused. Sabine is enraged. And no one has a clue of what the heck is happening.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I suck at summaries. I've written this while listening to pop cat compilations, so do not expect much. Well, in this chapter we have 3 pov's and I'm pretty sure I've fucked something up in every single one of them. I've taken bakerix to an extreme level here, also #giveMarinettesomesleep2k20. No like, seriously, she deserves it.<br/>Anyways, there shouldn't be any tw needed, so enjoy.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Whiteness surrounded her vision. The blurry sight slowly started changing, from a colored point in the center of her view, slowly expanding until she could actually see everything. Her body felt weightless, as if she was floating. She got up on her elbows, trying to understand where exactly she could be. The place looked empty as far as she could see, there was just a small plant, with colorful flowers. Orchids, she remembered. The ground under her weight felt cold, but she didn’t feel uncomfortable about it. It was almost all white, except for the dozen colorful flowers in front of her.</p><p>After a while, she felt the ground breaking under her feet. Marinette was falling in what felt like a sticky, thick fluid, warm yet uncomfortable, and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. It was suffocating, but it slowly started to fade. The reddish fluid, the only thing in her sight, now looked black, as if she had her eyes closed. In fact, after a couples of seconds, her eyes opened, letting the sunlight blind her. Her bluebell eyes reflected something even more blue then them: water. She was sitting down, with her legs dipping in the sweetly cold water. As she realized, she was alone. Almost, but she had yet to find out. Her sight fell on whatever surrounded her: She quickly realized she was on the top of a very tall skyscraper, probably the tallest she had ever seen, and all around her there were buildings, all of a beige color, higher than whatever tall building there could be in Paris. It felt oddly comforting, yet disturbing at the same time. The people looked a bit too much similar to one another, wearing either all white, all black or grey tones, as they walked down the streets in masses. She looked at her reflection in the water: her black hair had gotten longer from when she started being ladybug, and she looked frail and slender, due to the many meals skipped to fight against akumas. Her body was covered only by a pink and black bikini, she didn’t feel cold even though it was the first week of December. Her feet gently danced in the clear liquid, and the sun shone bright and warm on her pale skin.</p><p>“Where am I? What am I doing here?” she thought, not brave enough to say these questions out loud.</p><p>«You are somewhere… and nowhere at the same time» answered a voice, gentle and deep, «What do you remember about what you were doing before appearing here, may I ask?»</p><p>«I just remember I was on a tall building, nothing more. Then air, like really cold air, touching my skin. And then I woke up in that strange place, it looked like a gigantic mirror- wait, who are you?»</p><p>The voice left out a small laugh. «Oh, I’m a very important person, little Marinette. We have never met before, so I’ll let you know in a bit. Do you like this place?»</p><p>Marinette smiled. «Yeah, it’s relaxing. I definitely would appreciate having a little time off in a place like this.»</p><p>«Then we’ve got all the time in the world, you can stay as long as you like.</p><p>The ravenette lied down on the pavement, letting the sun hit her cadaveric skin and enjoying the moment. She had no idea of what was happening or where she was. But, just for now, it didn’t really matter: she needed to rest as every other human being, and in the last weeks all she had was attacks and commissions, tests almost every day. She really wanted to just lie down and forget everything, but she couldn’t. Right now, she couldn’t remember a single one of her assignments for Monday, or the latest commissions that meant sleep deprivation. Her eyes were once blue, now they were completely surrounded by red sclerae and looked like dark, cloudy sea in the middle of summer. She fell asleep within a couple of minutes.</p><p>When she woke up, she was pleasantly surprised of finding out it was still day outside, not a single slice of moon visible anywhere, the sky still light</p><p>«How much have I slept?» she asked to the void, hoping for the voice to give her an answer.</p><p>«For about 18 hours, darling.» Marinette goggled, almost choking on her own spit. «It’s been a day since you’ve been here, exactly 24 hours. Time… is a little different here, it never gets dark, and you can stay awake for as much as you’d like.»</p><p>Suddenly, a thought formed in her head. «Does my mom know I’m here?»</p><p>The voice’s tone got sweeter. «Oh, I think so, wouldn’t she? Maybe she doesn’t know exactly the place, but she definitely knows where you should be. Don’t worry about these problems now.»</p><p>«Do you know my mom?»</p><p>«Oh, I don’t know sweetie, do you want to talk about her?»</p><p>The soft shine that appeared in her iris went unnoticed. «Her name is Sabine. Well, technically not, her true name is Suyin, and she’s the greatest, she has teached me martial arts since I was very little, like two or three, and she is one of the kindest people I know. She doesn’t want to talk about her parents, but I understand, it’s a pretty rough situation. She can be very overprotective at times, but I know she does it just for my wellbeing, nothing else. Also, she’s the one who basically raised me alone, my father Tom was always in the bakery and never really there with me. But it’s thanks to her and contacts that I’ve been able to go to one of the best schools in Paris. I don’t really know how she can know so many people but she’s so beautiful I wouldn’t be surprised if in the past she was in some kind of modelling agency. I think… she really has been one of the only things keeping me alive.»</p><p>Even if she couldn’t see, the gentle voice’s smile showed in his words. «You seem to care a lot about your mother, don’t you? Do you mind if I show you something?»</p><p>Marinette shook her head. Suddenly, the water in the pool started to light up, becoming flat and white. Marinette was unsure of what to do, so, remembering what Bunnyx did many times, she placed the palm of her hand against the white liquid. Quickly, her vision changed and she now was in an hospital. Her mother looked so young, her hair tied up in a simple bun and her clothes replaced by a light blue cotton smock, as sweat came down her face, her whole body in pain. After about an hour, she was holding a small bundle, who was crying out loud: this was the day she was born. It was the 29<sup>th</sup> of July, and as her mom liked to describe it, it was the hottest day to ever exist. But her father was nowhere to be seen. Even so, the warmth of her mother’s smile and her ugly yet amusing new-born face made the scene a pleasant memory, even if before she had never seen any of this. Her hand slowly left the surface of the water, as the sight became familiar again.</p><p>Something seemed off with all of this, but now Marinette felt too tired to investigate farther.</p><hr/><p>Between everything he had seen in his life, Bruce Wayne had never experienced something quite like that. Someone could say that with Damien something similar had already happened, but never in the history of the Bruce family had a real hospital called the manor to inform Bruce that a daughter he didn’t even know he had was severely injured and quite possibly in a coma. Now, after verifying that it truly was a real hospital call center number, the options he and Tim had made out were 3:</p><ul>
<li>somebody at the hospital was very bored,</li>
<li>someone had hacked the hospital phone number and decided to use it to make jokes,</li>
<li>he truly had a daughter in Paris he knew nothing about.</li>
</ul><p>It wasn’t like he had always dated people, he actually didn’t have that kind of time when also conducting his second superhero life. He couldn’t make out the name of the damned girl the soft young woman from the other end of the line was talking about, except for a couple of letters, m and a, that likely were the first two letters of her first name. He sat down at his chair, his head in his hands as he tried to make out if he really could have a daughter somewhere. In New Jersey, it was almost time for lunch, as the CEO and secret superhero just wanted to go to Paris and punch in the face whoever had done this kind of joke.</p><p>Alfred came in the studio with a warm mug. «I thought you might need some help, sir.»</p><p>Bruce rubbed his hands on his face. «Alfred, I need some help please. What the hell am I supposed to do?»</p><hr/><p>Sabine got home just in time for dinner. Luckily, Tom had prepared some steaks for dinner and an omelette for the little Jeremie. Even though she felt terribly, she had to keep on a smile for her small boy, who she loved so much. She didn’t know how to tell him, he was still 9 years old and this news would have really made him sad. So, when the boy finally spoke his mind, she hesitated a bit before answering.</p><p>«Why isn’t Marinette here mom?»</p><p>Tom wasn’t looking, too afraid to even speak. Sabine could do nothing but take a deep breathe.</p><p>«Ok little nuisance, just promise me you’ll finish everything in your plate first.»</p><p>«I promise mom.»</p><p>«Even the carrots?»</p><p>Jeremie didn’t speak and Sabine smiled triumphantly. She could find a way to make it work. The small boy put a handful of orange vegetables in his mouth, chewing loudly.</p><p>«Now you have to tell me.»</p><p>«Ok, Jemie, hear me out. Do you remember today when I brought you to football practice? I still don’t know why but your sister was out roaming around and she had an accident. She is feeling really bad and needs to sleep for a while.»</p><p>«Oh…» Jeremie’s face looked sad, but he probably didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. «Isn’t that- like- a coma?»</p><p>«Yes Jemie, she’s in a coma.»</p><p>The boy played a little with the remaining pieces of omelette in his plate. «When will she wake up?»</p><p>It took everything in Sabine’s body to not cry. «Soon, don’t worry.» She ruffled her son’s hair.</p><p>After they ended the rest of their silent dinner, she got up and started washing the dishes; Tom was sweeping the floor. Their child was taking a shower, and finally Sabine had the time to cry a bit in silence. She slowly started to recall everything that had happened today, until she remembered a certain thing. She cleared her throat to get her husband’s attention.</p><p>«Tom, do you mind explaining to me why didn’t you adopt Marinette when she was 3 when you not only promised me but you have also confirmed multiple times that you had truly done it? Seriously, Thomas, what did make you think this was going to be a great idea. And you’ve never told me?»</p><p>Tom frowned, both furious and confused. «Of course I haven’t! You’ve basically pressured me into doing it, you’ve threatened me of leaving me if I didn’t, but adopting is such a consuming time activity, why couldn’t I be her step dad without bringing so much drama in it? Sabine you-»</p><p>«I am sorry? Pressuring you, threatening you? I’ve never said such things, I’ve just said that if you didn’t adopt her I would legally change her name, no big problem. But of course you had to screw up royally and make me and my daughter pay for the consequences of you actions. You do realize that her being found out with a recognisable surname? You understand who her father is, don’t you? Then why are you so selfish?»</p><p>«I am not selfish. Look at what I’ve done for her, I’ve given her a home, affection, everything she needs, I consider her my daughter no matter what because I love you, but do we really need all those formalities? I should’ve waited months to just have the permission to start the examination, honey, I was younger and I didn’t want it to take time from my career.»</p><p>«Of course, you had to become the best baker in Paris. It’s for your father, isn’t it? You had to be the daddy’s little boy as always, just to show how much better and successful you could be compared to your brother. Really, Thomas? You’ve always proclaimed to love me so much you would do anything to see me happy, and then? It’s the only thing I’ve asked you, I’ve agreed to quit my old job to help you in the bakery, and you know how much I loved it.»</p><p>«I’m sorry Sabine-»</p><p>«No, don’t start again with this, “I love you”, “You’re the only one for me” like, seriously. I’ll put Jemie to bed and I’ll go to Nadja. I don’t feel like talking tonight.» Sabine got up and entered in her son’s room.</p><p>The young boy, who now sat on his bed, was flipping through the pages of a big book. He had dark brown, soft hair and grey almond eyes, just like hers. Sabine smiled at him, while he got under the covers of his bed. «Did dad do something bad?» he asked, his head now falling comfortably on his soft blue pillow.</p><p>«Well, it’s something that happens, but he did something very wrong, we’ll see if he can apologize properly. What do you want me to read tonight?» she said calmly.</p><p>«King Arthur?» he said.</p><p>«Again? It’s the fifteenth time I read it.» Sabine smirked.</p><p>«Pleeeeease» he begged her, suddenly sitting up.</p><p>«Fine, fine, you little nightmare. I’m reading it again but now lie down.»</p><p>Needless to say, he didn’t last even fifteen minutes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>How many references can I make in a single chapter? Too many. So the coma's dreams were HEAVILY inspired by one of my childhood favourite teenage dramas (there should be an american version too I think???), Braccialetti Rossi. Second, the name of Jeremie is inspired by Jeremy from Code Lyoko, another one of my favorite french cartoons.<br/>Also if you want a small spoiler about Sabine's backstory, just search up what her chinese name means.<br/>In the next chapter we'll see how Bunnyx has carried things out for sure.<br/>Stay tuned and merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Hard truths, past events, future hope</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Bunnyx and Adrien try to find a way to make up for the absence of Ladybug, Sabine finally is told the hard truth she needed to hear, Alfred is having way too much fun with this stuff.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Today's chapter is a bit longer because I was having way too much fun writing Nadja completely losing her shit. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to write Tom as the "bad guy" originally, but to be honest he has too little flaws for my liking. Anyways, enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>«Where are we?» Adrien asked. The place they were in looked like an enormous white sphere, ornated by an incredible amount of animated circles all over its surface.</p><p>Bunnyx gave him a mocking smile. «You idiot, we’re in my burrow. From here, you have access to every age that ever existed, exists or will exist.»</p><p>«And what exactly are we going to do? Will we try to save Ladybug going back in time?»</p><p>Alix face turned into a sad grin. «No, we won’t. We- we’ve already tried many times, you do not remember it, but it’s been… a nightmare. We have tried everything, you even found out her identity. But every time, in one way or the other, she ended up in this same conditions. My future self explained to me that future Ladybug has said that she had been severely injured when she was almost 15. So, I’ve tried but we can’t do anything. The only thing possible now is try to solve this situation. Hear me out: M-Ladybug has compiled a list, you might try to retrieve the Miracle Box, but since there is no guardian and we both know your lifestyle is kinda precarious we must give the miraculouses to different people, because if there were too many miraculouses in one single unsupervised place, it would be too easy for people to steal them. I will now transport us to the moment in which the fight against the akuma started, I’ll need you to stay with your eyes closed, to prevent you from figuring her identity out.»</p><p>«But why in that moment?» he asked.</p><p>«It’s the only moment during which there was nobody in her room, so we can take it without altering the timeline.» She tossed a small scarf to him. «Wear it, I want to be sure that you won’t see anything.»</p><p>He put the scarf around his head, carefully covering his eyes. «It’s so soft, did Marinette make it?»</p><p>Alix smiled bitterly, just before entering the small portal in front of her. Plagg and Tikki were instead wandering around the burrow, looking into the future. Tikki was visibly emotionally devastated, and Plagg was, unsuccesfully, trying to raise her spirits.</p><p>Meanwhile, Adrien’s mind was running free. He had too much to think about. He was definitely not prepared for any of this. Nothing could’ve prepared him to loose another one of the closest people in his life, especially if that person was also the heroine of Paris, someone that anybody could trust with their life. What would the people of Paris say if she didn’t show up during the next villain attack? What would Hawkmoth himself say? Would he feel guilty? Who was Ladybug? And what would happen if Ladybug wasn’t there to save them? Could he be the only one protecting Paris or would he need help from other people? Who was Ladybug? Did Master Fu really make the right choice? Was he worthy of being the holder of the black cat miraculous? What exactly happened to his lady to make her fall in a coma? Would she ever be a superhero again? Who the heck was Ladybug?</p><p>To distract from his train of thoughts was the return of Alix, who had a big round black and red box in her hand.</p><p>«You can take off the scarf now» she announced.</p><p>He threw her the piece of fabric. «How can I protect Paris alone?» Adrien asked.</p><p>«Excuse me?»</p><p>Adrien reddened from the embarrassment. «Like… I’ve always relied on her for support, and to take out the akumas, I don’t think I can do this on my own.»</p><p>Alix sat down with him. «Listen, I know how you feel, and I don’t expect that you carry everything on your own, that’s why we’re going to create an alliance of superheroes. We need Ladybug as our leader, of course, but her major role is to purify akumas, she is needed but not irreplaceable. The thing is, we can eliminate an akuma in more way than the one we’re used to: you can destroy it with your cataclysm, we could find a way to catch them or even Tikki could just eat them as well. Also, you're too attached to the past, now that Hawkmoth has surrendered we don't have to worry about akumas anymore. Here, look, this is the list that she has compiled in this last week. She had thought it would be more practical in case she was unavailable that you and I knew every future and past member of the hero squad. Or whatever name you’ll chose to have. Isn’t that ironical?»</p><p>«When did you find out this would happen?» he asked, concern and anger in his voice.</p><p>She didn’t answer. «It doesn’t matter now. We have a mission. We must give the miraculouses out to their holders before Hawkmoth can attack us: can you do this?»</p><p>Adrien nodded. Three minutes later, he was back in his bedroom, with the company of Plagg and Tikki. He sat down on his bed and immediately heard a knock on the door. The two kwamis hid under the boy’s pillow, meanwhile he opened the door. Nathalie was standing there, her usual composure broken only by the blue folder she was holding.</p><p>«Adrien, your father wants me to remind you that tomorrow you’ll be going to that fashion show in New York, your luggage is ready. Dinner is in an hour.»</p><p>Adrien nodded, even though he had completely forgotten about this.</p><p>«Plagg, claws out!»</p><hr/><p>Sabine packed a couple of things and set out to her friend’s house. Before setting off to her destination, the woman stopped her car in a parking lot in front of a small shop. She bought a small bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes. She had stopped smoking once she found out she was pregnant with Marinette, but had casually smoked when her husband wasn’t looking. She knew he wouldn’t agree with her choiches, but now Tom was the last thing she wanted to think about. She sat down on the hood of her car, lighting up the small cylinder of tobacco and paper. She gently closed her coat, and her phone started ringing. A number, probably not even French, showed up on the screen of her cellphone, and by accident she pressed the answer button.</p><p>«<em>Allo? Qui est?</em>»</p><p>«<em>Bonjour</em>, Sabine, it’s been a while. It’s me, Alfred.»</p><p>Panic arose in her, showing in her facial expression. «Alfred Pennyworth?»</p><p>«Yes, exactly. Luckily you haven’t changed your number» he was talking with an almost paternal tone. He seemed genuinely caring. «I was wondering if we could talk, if it’s not too late.»</p><p>«No, not at all, it’s fine.»</p><p>«How’s everything going? It’s been a while» he said calmly.</p><p>«It could be better, I guess. Way better.» Sabine was very nervously breathing through the cigarette. She wanted to trust him with the information of Marinette’s parentage, but she couldn’t afford Bruce or anyone else of the Wayne family finding out.</p><p>«If I’m not intrusive, may I know why?»</p><p>Sabine took a deep, long breath, putting out the cigarette. «My- my daughter had an accident, and now is severely injured. I’m just very worried.»</p><p>«Oh, miss, I’m so sorry-»</p><p>«Madame, please, I’m married and no longer young as I was back then.»</p><p>«Sorry, Mrs Cheng, it must have been hard for you and her father.»</p><p>«Yes, her step-father is taking it way better than me, but we’re very worried, we don’t know if she’ll make it or if she will ever walk, talk, be a normal teen again.» Sabine, still very composed, was actually about to cry. She checked her watch: it was almost half past ten. «I’m sorry Alfred, but I must go now.»</p><p>«Understandable, madame, it’s been a pleasure talking with you again.»</p><p>«Anytime. Well, goodbye then.»</p><p>Sabine ended the call. She really didn’t want to do this, but now she felt so free and light. She got in the car and, out of the blue, she started crying her eyes out. Pushing her head against the upper part of the steering wheel, she let the warm and salty tears wash all over her face like rain in a desert: she had cried that very same day, but not nearly enough to show the angst and sadness that filled her heart. After a couple of minutes, she started laughing, because of how messed up her life was, how it had always been. The whole situation was just so ridiculous, it almost made her want to write a book about it. How stupid of her to think she could handle such a great responsibility, a secret so major all alone. Young, stupid Sabine. It was all her fault: her fault rejecting to abort or put up for adoption her child, her fault not telling Bruce she was pregnant, her fault wanting to do it all alone and keeping it a secret from everyone.</p><p>«God, I’m such an idiot» she said, almost laughing at her own comment. She turned on the radio. An old song, from when she was about 21 came up to the radio.</p><p>
  <em>Still in love.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Still in love baby. Listen.</em>
</p><p>Sabine smiled. This song reminded her of her first love and how they met. She remembered the night she escaped from a gala with a young man, to go and dance barefoot in the middle of nowhere in a field.</p><p>
  <em>I'm still the man for you.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And I'm still the man that's true.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And I'm still the man who's lucky.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And I'm still in love with you.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It don't matter what your friends do.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>They're just jealous of me and you.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And I'll always keep you happy,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'cause I'm still in love with you.</em>
</p><p>She sang all the way to her friend’s house. It was in an even richer part of the town. The Chamack’s were all pretty rich people, Nadja’s father himself was a big announcer back in the days, while her mother worked in a theatre. She entered the luxurious apartment with the bottle of wine and her bag. Nadja was waiting for her in her silk nightgown.</p><p>«Sabine, please enter. Dear, you look like a mess.»</p><p>Sabine laughed. «You heard the news.»</p><p>«Yeah, poor Mari, she didn’t deserve any of that. Especially since she has protected the whole Paris for more than a year now, you’d think she would have a bit of karma on her side.» Nadja said, sitting down on the couch.</p><p>«Oh, I know Nad, but luck isn’t exactly something the Cheng's experience frequently.» Sabine replied, looking for her night vest in her bag. She quickly entered the bathroom, changed and went back to the living room.</p><p>«It’s the third time that something like this happens since October ended, Suyin, I’m worried.» Nadja commented.</p><p>«How do you know about the other two?» Sabine asked, a bit confused.</p><p>Nadja raised her eyebrow in disbelief and started opening the bottle of wine. «Do you think that I haven’t talked with Haniya or Genevieve? I basically speak to them every day.»</p><p>Suyin looked around curious. «Is Manon here?»</p><p>«She’s with her father tonight. You can drink without any worry.» Nadja filled the two glasses on the coffee table. «Anyways, I feel that there is something wrong, seriously. You’ve literally escaped from home multiple times when you’ve had a fight with your husband and now it’s getting even more frequent. Believe me, I can see that you’re not happy from a thousand kilometers away.»</p><p>The black haired woman picked up her glass and drank. «I mean, it’s just that I don’t feel like sleeping next to him when we fight, also a lot of things have happened since we found out Marinette is… was Ladybug. He’s started acting like, I don’t even know how to describe it, jealous? Envious? Like, I treat both my children equally and love them both, but for him it’s never enough. Maybe it’s that I’ve been a lot more present when they were younger than now that the bakery is taking off. Or maybe it’s just that Marinette isn’t his, and he feels some sort of bitterness for her. I had never relly thought about this before, if I’m completely honest.»</p><p>Nadja’s put a hand between her eyes, massaging her nose. «So you’re telling me that he might have always acted like a jerk towards your daughter and that she could’ve been dealing with this alone because you never paid attention to your husband’s attitude?»</p><p>«No… in fact I’ve noticed this before and I’ve always tried to prevent it from happening. But I can’t force him to treat her like a daughter, if he doesn’t see her as such.» Suyin lowered her head in embarrassment.</p><p>Nadja’s face immediately started showing worry. «It’s not the first thing he has done. He looks like such a sweet person, but at the same time he treats your daughter unfairly, has forbidden you to keep on with your dream job to help him at the bakery for his own good, what else did he do?»</p><p>«He’s not a bad person, he’s just very stubborn. Also, I couldn’t have protected Marinette without him. I just think he holds a grudge against me for the whole high school thing, you know.»</p><p>«It’s been more than seventeen years ago, and you were what? 15, 16 at most. At that time you didn’t want to date him, or anyone in your case. What does he have to feel betrayed or spiteful about?» Nadja was trying her best to put some sense in her high school bestfriend’s head. «When you had Marinette you were literally 21, you were the youngest out of our group of friends, honestly everything could’ve happened. But you came clear to him, no ill intentions, and said that you would’ve loved to date him. He knew what had happened. So, after ten years of marriage you’re telling me he holds a grudge against you just because you wouldn’t date him in high school?»</p><p>Sabine didn’t know what to say. Everything the woman sitting near her was right.</p><p>Nadja leaned towards her, cupping the Suyin’s hands with her own. «Listen, Sabine. I’ve met Alec three years ago, when Manon was already two years old. He has loved her from the start, he never stopped giving her gifts or bringing her everywhere she wanted, always cuddling with her and spoiling her. He loves me and understands Manon is not his own, but he treats her as such. We’re marrying in July and that’s because he treats me right, as I do with him, and my daughter is part of our family and it couldn’t be otherwise. You deserve that too, and even if you would’ve been the perfect couple in high school, it doesn’t mean you’re right for each other right now. You deserve someone that will appreciate you for who you are and what your family is. Believe me, you deserve to be happy, and you won’t hurt your children if you leave him. You might actually do something good for the both of you. And especially for Mari.»</p><p>At that, Suyin started tearing up, and Nadja followed soon.</p><p>The announcer wiped away her tears and smiled. «Hey, why don’t we do something a bit less depressing?»</p><p>Sabine and Nadja ended up searching for wedding dresses all evening, until they finally fell asleep.</p><hr/><p>It was almost 1 AM when Alfred finally decided to talk to Bruce, after leaving him to go crazy over the situation with Tim and Dick the whole day in his office. Only patrolling the city in his batsuit made his head a bit clearer. The heir of the Wayne’s was still finishing a couple of projects on his computer when the butler approached him.</p><p>«Sir, I have a confession to make» he started saying, his usual tone of voice replaced by a softer and more guilty one.</p><p>Bruce intertwined his fingers right under his chin. «Well, tell me then.»</p><p>«I have found the mother of your mysterious daughter.»</p><p>«What? Are you kidding me? It wasn’t a joke?»</p><p>«No, it wasn’t. Do you, by any chanche, remember a certain Suyin Cheng?»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Believe me when I say I had never ever heard that specific song before but it came up and I was like ??? "wait it's perfect". Also yes, Haniya may or may not be my OC for Nino's mother. Rereading everithing I found out I have to revise the first, second, third, zero and every existing conditional because I can't for the love of everything get them right, so tell me if I misspelled anything, and what you think about, good day/night everybody.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Pulling together, breaking apart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Adrien forms the miracusquad, Bruce tells everybody the truth, the Batfamily is excited, Marinette is traumatized and Sabine receives bad news.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ok I really wanted to post like this morning when (and if) I wake up, but I decided otherwise. Am I insane enough to do this instead of sleeping? Yes. Will I regret this? Also yes. It looks like a future me problem tho. I am not very proud of this chapter, it kinda feels rushed, especially Adrien's part, but it's because I want to talk more about the important parts aka Bruce, Mari and Sabine's pov's. There's a small tw/rape when talking about Bruce's backstory, it's nothing too major, not even described, but just to be sure. Anyways, enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nino came home from his soccer practice, and went straight to dinner, bickering with his brother, not noticing what was happening in his room. When he finally entered in the room, he found a small spheric box, which he opened immediately, revealing the Turtle miraculous. Wayzz came out of the bracelet, cuddling his holder’s face.</p><p>Alya was talking with Lila at the phone, when she noticed a dark figure carefully depositing something on the window-sill, as she went to check she found a miniature miracle box. She opened it, and welcomed with a warm hug her friend Trixx.</p><p>Kim found Xuppu in his bag as he came out of the pool. Luka found Sass hidden in his guitar. Markov brought the small box containing Kaalki to Max. Kagami found Longg in her locker after finishing her fencing practice.</p><p>Adrien looked at the list: he had already deposited Roarr in Juleka’s guitar case. He left Daizzi in Rose’s vases of violets. Then, he took Orikko to the Kurtsberg’s and Ziggy to Marc Anciel’s room. He put Stompp on top of Ivan’s drums. Finally, he put Barkk in Sabrina’s pencil case.</p><p>He had two more miraculous left: the bee and the mouse. He proceeded to go to Chloé’s house. He deposited the round box and hid behind a bush. When the girl found Pollen again, she almost cried of joy. He smiled, seeing his childhood friend finally appreciate deeply something she had been given.</p><p>Now, the dilemma: reading the list of names he was pretty sure he had to give the mouse miraculous to Mylène, but it didn’t feel right. Now, in their class, everyone except for Mylène and Marinette had a miraculous, and he found it wrong that the other person to have a miraculous wasn’t his everyday Ladybug, his princess.</p><p>«Where are you going? This isn’t the way to the address you were given» Tikki said, looking to the list in the boy’s hand.</p><p>He nonchalantly answered: «To Marinette’s. She’s proved she’s been worthy of the mouse miraculous before.»</p><p>«Oh, Adrien… I know you care deeply about her, but if Ladybug hasn’t put her on the list, it’s probably because she doesn’t think she’s cut out for the job.»</p><p>Chat Noir’s face changed to a guilty smirk. Tikki continued: «Have faith in her, she knows what she’s doing.»</p><p>One hour later, Adrien was back home, and the mouse miraculous was safe in Mylène’s house.</p><p>He didn't pay attention to one major fact: the peacock and butterfly miraculouses were nowhere to be found.</p><p>The next morning, he left Tikki to fly to her holder. Alix phoned him in the early morning to let him know everything had turned out fine, every holder had their miraculous and they could meet and prepare for attacks even without the superhero duo. She thought it was even more convenient to have both go away for some times, not to put Ladybug’s identity even more in danger. When the plane took off, he felt even more grateful for it: he needed a distraction from all the messes that there were in his life.</p><hr/><p>Bruce didn't sleep that night. He closed his eyes just for some minutes, trying to rest but he was too agitated. He had a daughter. He had a daughter and he never knew anything about it. How could he be so reckless? It was the second time a biological child of his came to life after years, but this time it. wasn't 10, it actually was 14. And she wasn't even conscious, she was in a coma. He could've lost her before even getting to know her. How bad could that even be. He remembered clearly what happened when he found out about Damien: he was drugged and raped by Thalia Al Ghul, and ten years later he finally met his child, who was trained to be a villain in every way. He had bad memories of that event: he had fought, quite literally, with his son multiple times, and despised his mother from the bottom of his heart. But now, he found out that the beautiful, loving and caring Suyin, his first love, had given birth to his daughter. If she looked even half as good as his first lover did, he had no doubt she would be the most beautiful creature in the entire universe. He really was grateful for his divorce last year: even if he loved Selina, they weren't right for each other, always having the same problems and dealing with the same stuff, their relationship was getting suffocating for the both of them. Selina wanted children, and Bruce had already enough. But the straw that broke the camel's back was finding out about Damien: not Damien himself, but more about the fact that he had been raped and he never gained the courage to tell it to his wife.</p><p>That same morning, he called all of his children in his office. The five arrived right after breakfast, Damien being the last one. He was visibly in distress, and Dick was trying his best to help him out. The oldest son still didn’t know what Bruce had called them for, but he wanted to know and, at the same time, prevent his father figure from having an heart attack. Bruce took in a deep breath: he was known for his composure, stillness and for the first time in years he was letting his emotions have the best of him in front of his younger colleagues and children.</p><p>«Now, I have called you in today because I’ve got some news» he said, regaining control.</p><p>Jason, who was sitting in the most awkward way possible, replied: «Don’t let us wait, B, because if it’s not about you getting back together with Selina I owe Cass 15 dollars.»</p><p>Bruce shook his head. «No, it isn’t.» Cassandra raised her eyebrow and put her hand right in front of a grumpy Jason, who now had opened his wallet.</p><p>«I just have to let you know: Tim and Dick helped me the other day when I received a mysterious call from an hospital in Paris, and Alfred has called an… ex-girlfriend of mine. I apparently have a daughter in France, I still don’t know her name, but her surname is Cheng and she is currently in a coma-»</p><p>«Wait» said Tim, «you mean Marinette Cheng? The one that has won a contest for the Gabriel brand as a stylist?»</p><p>Dick’s face lit up. «Oh, I’ve heard of her too. She has drawn Jagged Stone’s cover for one of his last albums. Many people have told me she’s an awesome person.»</p><p>Cassandra turned on her phone. Typing a bit, she found her Instagram account. She got up and showed Bruce the photos of the girl: she had beautiful black hair that arrived just under her shoulders, beautiful blue almond eyes, a pale skin and beautifully red lips. She had about a thousand followers, not many, but she was tagged in pics of important celebrities, such as Clara Nightingale, for whom she had danced in a music video, Nadja Chamack, for which she had made various outfits, even from Jessica Keynes and Aeon. Bruce was once again about to have an heart attack.</p><p>«How did she end up in a coma?» Jason asked.</p><p>«Who cares?» replied the annoyed Damien.</p><p>Bruce crossed his arms. «I don’t know, I didn’t even know her name until a minute ago.»</p><p>Cassandra looked at him. «She injured, we help her, send her doctor.»</p><p>Jason replied: «Cass is right, B, we should help her if we can. Maybe we could take her here, so she can have her own private doctor and not be in an hospital.»</p><p>«You want this» stated Cassandra, reading his body language.</p><p>Bruce nodded. «I’ll se what I can do.»</p><p>Not even an hour after the discussion, the hashtag #newayne was already trending on Twitter.</p><p><strong><em>@toddjason</em></strong> <em>I lived bitch</em></p><p>
  <em>It’s a girl!</em>
</p><p><strong> <em>@timotheedrake</em> </strong> <em> Not your local smart@ss</em></p><p>
  <em>Replying to <strong>@toddjason</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>She looks like such an awesome person :)</em>
</p><p><strong> <em>@riCHADgrayson </em> </strong> <em>Big Dick energy</em></p><p>
  <em>Replying to <strong>@toddjason</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Can’t believe we didn’t found out sooner</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><strong> <em>@waynesimp02 </em> </strong> <em>Professional Drama Queen</em></p><p>
  <em>Replying to <strong>@toddjason</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>WHAT HAPPENED?????</em>
</p><p><strong> <em>@sxperheros_  </em> </strong> <em>Lea lo</em> <em>ves you 3000 &lt;3</em></p><p>
  <em>Replying to <strong>@waynesimp02</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>I have no idea??? Maybe Bruce adopted another child?</em>
</p><p><strong> <em>@dave382963 </em> </strong> <em>David</em></p><p>
  <em>Replying to <strong>@sxperheros_</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Oh yes, and maybe that child is Ladybug too. Grow up and stop with your stupid theories.</em>
</p><p><strong> <em>@ladynxir </em> </strong> <em>Paris best couple 2k15</em></p><p>
  <em>Replying to <strong>@dave382963</strong></em>
</p><p><em>Valid point. Unless</em> <em>…</em></p><hr/><p>«Hey, Voice, for how long have I been here?» Marinette asked, leaning on the railing.</p><p>«Less than two days, why are you asking?» answered the Voice, brushing past her.</p><p>Marinette shivered. «I just miss my home, that’s all.»</p><p>«May I ask you a small question?»</p><p>«Of course you can.»</p><p>«Why is your surname Cheng? Shouldn’t it be Dupain?»</p><p>Marinette’s face showed her surprise. «I wasn’t expecting that question. Well, my mom has always told me that it’s because I was born before their marriage, so they choose to let me take my mom’s surname. It makes sense.»</p><p>«Oh, I’m sure. When did your parents marry?»</p><p>«I don’t have a vivid memory of it, but I’m pretty sure I was three. My mom was 24 at the time, dad was 26. I mean, she’s always told me they were friends in high school and that everyone shipped them, my father included, but she didn’t have time for a relationship at the time. I’ve heard my father say that he liked her since she had started high school.»</p><p>«And what about you, do you have someone you love?»</p><p>«Well, yes. Two people actually. One is this big crush I’ve had for more than a year, for my classmate. His name is Adrien, he’s a model, and I know what you’d think but I hated him at first, I didn’t fall for him for his appearance, but because he has an heart of gold. He’s so kind and caring, always going out of his way for his friends.»</p><p>«And who’s the other?» asked the Voice, curiosity rising in his voice.</p><p>«Promise me you won’t laught.» The Voice was, in fact, already laughing for the question.</p><p>It gained composure again. «Who’s the lucky guy?»</p><p>«It’s Chat Noir. Listen, I know it sounds even crazier, but he has a beautiful soul. He’s the kindest, most selfless cat-human being I’ve ever met in my life. He can be such a dork sometimes, but I know he does this to hide his fears and frustrations, he has a complicated life, I don’t blame him. I’ve started falling for him at the start of summer. He’s so genuine, he always comes to visit me whenever he can. And during battle he has done anything to protect me.»</p><p>«Battles?»</p><p>«Well, since I guess you don’t talk much with other people, you can know. I am Ladybug, one of the heroes of Paris.»</p><p>The Voice caressed her gently with its ghost touch. «I already knew that. Look.»</p><p>The water started turning white and shiny like the day before. Marinette placed her hands against the surface of the liquid, letting its heat slowly invade her. She opened her eyes and a scene appeared in front of her: her parents in the living room, apparently they had just finished lunch. Sabine sat on one end of the couch and her father was sitting on the other, reading a newspaper. The news were showing on tv and Sabine was watching them, concern showing in the way she was nervously playing with her nails.</p><p>The announcer spoke: «And for today’s news, Ladybug and Chat Noir have successfully saved Paris once again. As always, they’ve left the scene before we could interview them but Paris is safe once again.»</p><p>«Is Marinette Ladybug?» Tom asked.</p><p>Sabine opened her eyes in surprise. «You hadn’t realized it? Have you ever noticed how she always sleeps too little and is a mess every night?»</p><p>«You know I’m always at work sweetie.»</p><p>Sabine shut her eyes closed. «Please, Tom. I know it’s difficult for you, especially now that she’s older, but you should treat her like your own.»</p><p>What?</p><p>«I know, I know, but I just can’t help it. I love her, I really do, it’s just… I don’t know how to treat her, how to talk with her, I’m afraid I’ll let her understand many things. You know that I love you and I would do anything for you, and I’m trying…»</p><p>«But it would be different if you were her father. I’ve already heard this one, Thomas. You know what? I don’t care. Do what you want.»</p><p>The two stood there in silence, ignoring each other.</p><p>Marinette took away her hand. Tears of rage were running down her face. They had lied to her for so many years, and it took somebody else’s help for her to find out. Tom was also insinuating that Sabine had forced him to do this, his face said it all and now all Marinette wanted to do was spit on the man’s face.</p><p>«Is everything alright, Marinette?» asked the Voice, invisibly leaning closer.</p><p>«I think I need a hug.»</p><p>The Voice took shape, becoming a bright yellow light, similar to a human covered by a long tunic, with a round mask instead of their bare face. They sat down near the poor girl, wrapping her up in their warm embrace.</p><hr/><p>Morning came too soon for Sabine’s liking. She had a cup of coffee and put on her clothes, before driving back to the bakery. It was still very early in the morning, clients usually started arriving at nine or ten. The clock showed the time: seven and a half. She still had some time. She went in the shower, and changed in her work clothes. Her apron covered the majority of her chest, and even if it didn’t feel half as good as an elegant, long, blue dress, it was as good as it could get, she didn’t complain. As she started putting back in order some of the price tags, Tom arrived from the oven area. She smiled at him, but he had an irremovable frown on his face.</p><p>Then, he pronounced the four words.</p><p>«I want a divorce.»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm so sorry, I've realized a major incongruence: in the first chapter I've said that Hawkmoth and Mayura had surrendered, yet I've talked about them for the next chapters. I am correcting the most important bits but anyways I apologize, I forgot since I wrote the first paragraph of the story as a prompt a bit before starting to write out the story.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Discoveries</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Tom asks for a divorce, Sabine explains things and Jeremie is an intelligent kid, the miracuclass is devastated and Lila is given the power she needs.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ok if you haven't read the last notes, I've made a major disaster with Hawkmoth's whole character, it should be resolved now but if you notice any incongruences let me know. Anyways, time for a little bit of drama involving the Dupain-Cheng family, I stand by the point that Sabine can't do wrong and the whole Bustier class needs therapy. Also, I headcanon Nino, Kim and Marinette as childhood bffs but it ain't vital to the story. Enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>«What?» exclaimed Suyin. She thought she was still dreaming.</p><p>«You heard me.»</p><p>Sabine closed her eyes and started massaging the bridge of her nose. «Yes, but why?»</p><p>«This is… not working. You were right, we have different perspectives in life. You still want your old job and I understand that, I still want to be a baker, whether I really want it or I’m just doing it out of spite doesn’t matter. We’ve been faking our “perfect family” for way too long. I care deeply about you, I guess you do the same for me, but this isn’t working. We have way too high expectations for each other. It’s best if we stop all of this.»</p><p>«I… have asked for one thing, to be kind to my daughter instead of hiding in your work, but it looks like it’s too much to ask. You know what, you’re right. I’m talking with Leclerc this afternoon.»</p><p>Tom hid his face in his hands. «God, I really thought this relationship was going to work. We’ve been the perfect match since high school.»</p><p>Sabine raised her eyebrow. «Really, Tom? Haven’t you grown up a bit? A lot of things have changed since high school. And there’s no such a thing as a “perfect match”.»</p><p>«Not with me, at least.» Tom muttered under his breath.</p><p>«Stop playing the victim, Tom, you’re the one who asked for a divorce.» Sabine was nervously snarling, as she put back the remaining money in the cash register.</p><p>«Like you hadn’t already thought about that. Or maybe your “friends” had brainwashed you again. Also, stop acting like I’m in the wrong, you still love that… idiot.»</p><p>Sabine inspired loudly. «Yes, I thought about it but if it was suggested by my friends is none of your business. Also, you’re just envy, because I still have a relationship with my high school friends and all you care about is work.»</p><p>«You didn’t say anything about Bruce, though.»</p><p>Suyin’s voice trembled. «God, of course I don’t love him anymore, almost fifteen years have passed, how could I? We had a child together, what do you think? I love you, I really do…»</p><p>«But not as much as you loved him, right?» Tom looked furious and hurt.</p><p>Sabine’s face turned in a plain, emotionless expression. She had enough. «This conversation ends here. I’m waking Jemie up.»</p><p>The woman run up the stairs and sat down next to the boy. «Wake up, sleeping beauty.» She gently pressed her lips on his forhead.</p><p>«Give me five minutes, mom» he said, his voice sleepy. He hid his head under the covers, ignoring his mom opening the shutters of the window.</p><p>She sighed, proceeding to raise the covers. She then started tickling the boy under his armpits, making him laugh. «Stop… mom…»</p><p>«And this is the punishment for naughty lazy boys, come on, get up. You’re just like… your sister.» The last words hurt a little.</p><p>She left the room, preparing some milk for the boy. It felt all too silent, without her little girl rushing to go and buy fabrics before her shift started, clumsily putting dishes to dry on the draining rack. She missed her small little dance steps, made on the tip of her toes, when she tried out her ballet recital moves while taking out the trash. Just thinking that her beautiful daughter could possibly never do that again made her feel the gravity of the situation. The small protective walls of lies she had built in the last fifteen years, starting when she found out she was pregnant, was bit by bit falling apart. She left a small cry out, and a now dressed up Jemie came and put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled weakly at him, pointing to him to sit down. Sabine handed him a bowl of hot milk and the chocolate powder’s box. The boy started eating.</p><p>«Has dad apologized?»</p><p>Fuck. She wasn’t ready for that question. «No, Jay-Jay, we still have to talk.»</p><p>«What were you arguing about?» the boy started pouring cereals in the bowl.</p><p>«That’s not something I can tell you, Jemie.» Sabine was making some coffee. There was no other way she could’ve gotten through the day.</p><p>«Please mom, I’m old enough to understand.» Jeremie was childishly splashing chocolate milk all over his face.</p><p>Sabine held a giggle. «Ok, ok. But you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone.»</p><p>«Even Chris?»</p><p>«Yes, not eve Chris Lahiffe.»</p><p>Jeremie made the gesture of closing his mouth like a zipper.</p><p>«Ok so, your dad is too hard with your sister, because in reality she’s your half-sister.»</p><p>Jeremie threw his eyes open. «What does it mean?»</p><p>«That while Tom is your dad, he isn’t Marinette’s. Marinette was born before me and your father got together» Sabine explained calmly.</p><p>«But dad has said he had knew you since high school.»</p><p>Suyin nodded. «Yes, we met when we I first started high school, but we got together when I was almost 23 and he was 25. I had your sister when I was 21, and when I first met your father, he was the kindest with Mari.»</p><p>Jeremie frowned. «But why can’t I tell anybody?»</p><p>«First, your sister still doesn’t know, and would probably feel bad if she found out. And second, because Mari’s father is a very powerful and influent person, so if people found out Mari, you and I would be in danger. We might need to move away and we can’t afford that now, you understand?»</p><p>The boy nodded, and she ruffled his hair. She wasn’t ready to tell him about the divorce. Even though he was a smart child, he still was going to be hurt and blame himself if she told him almost at the same time as his sister almost dying.</p><p>As the boy finished, his mother told him to go make homework in his room.</p><p>Suddenly, her phone rang.</p><p>«Allo?»</p><p>«Good morning, Suyin Cheng?» asked a young male voice.</p><p>«It’s me. Who is this?»</p><p>«Thimothy Drake, Wayne Enterprise. We have to talk.»</p>
<hr/><p>Two days and another week was starting. Nino was sitting down on the staircase in front of the school building. He was texting his best friend about his fashion show and what happened the day before. Kim knocked his shoulder.</p><p>«Hey dude» said the first boy, putting his phone in his jacket’s pocket.</p><p>«’Sup bro? Today you ain’t all cheesy with Alya, strange.»</p><p>«Yeah, we broke up» replied Nino, with a neutral tone.</p><p>Kim opened his eyes wide, incredulous. «No way. I’m sorry bro, what happened?»</p><p>«Do you remember when I had that… humungous crush on Nettie? Apparently when I told that to Ivan he told Mylène who apparently told Lila who reported it to Alya, and now she believes I got with her because Nettie likes Adrien and I didn’t want to break his heart, and not because I genuinely like her. Also she has said that she didn’t feel the same anymore. I honestly can’t believe her.»</p><p>Kim sat next to him. «Damn bro, that must be hard. Fuck Lila, I’ve never liked her anyway. She lies constantly and made me break up with Ondine.»</p><p>«Wait, what happened dude?» Nino checked his wrist, only to find, instead of his watch, the turtle miraculous. Kim noticed it, but didn’t comment.</p><p>«Well, Sabrina has told her the failed attempt at asking out to Chloé, do you remember? The next day I receive a message from Ondine that says that I’ve only asked her out because I couldn’t go out with Chloé, which is absolutely untrue because I didn’t even have a crush on her, I just found her cute. Well, at least her appearance.»</p><p>«Hey, I think she’s improved a lot.» Nino noticed a black limousine coming towards the school.</p><p>«I mean, definitely. Since Lila has come back and Chloé started hanging around with Nettie the whole time she’s been a lot more kind… in Chloé’s limits.»</p><p>«Maybe she has a crush on her, who knows?» Nino laughed at his own words.</p><p>«Plausible, I mean, I think most of the class has had a crush for Mari at some point.»</p><p>«You too?» Nino bowed his head.</p><p>«I was 11…» Kim flushed, «but this isn’t the place to talk about this. She could hear and I would be dead.»</p><p>«She hasn’t arrived yet. Ok, what a news. Is today a “Marinette arrives at school just before the teacher arrives” kind of day or a “Marinette arrives halfway through the first hour” lesson?»</p><p>«Well, the second one hasn’t happened in a while, it might as well be that one.»</p><p>Nino was about to answer, when the bell rang, signaling that in three minutes they had to be seated at their desks. Kim stood up almost immediately, leaving a lazy Nino behind. He texted one final message to his best friend and went to put the content of his bag inside his locker. He totally forgot his locker was next to Alya’s one, so, when their gazes met, she put on a offended face and walked away seconds later. Nino shook his head and noticed the pink haired girl standing right next to him, leaning on Nathaniel’s locker while playing with her shoe shaped keychain.</p><p>«That bitch really thinks that making couples breaking up is some sort of healthy hobby.»</p><p>Well, that came out of the blue. Nino looked at her and asked: «Alya told you?»</p><p>«I mean, not that I needed to hear it from her. She usually is like, how can I say it…» Alix cleared her throat, «“Oh Nino is such a good guy”, “I wish I could kiss him right now”, “He’s so hot when he does things”, which, I hate to admit, is unnerving, and also makes her a bit of an hypocrite, especially when she complains about how much Nettie talks about Adrien.»</p><p>«Well, it looks like you won’t have to put up with that anymore» said the turtle miraculous holder.</p><p>Alix shot him a look, then jokingly punched his arm. «Come on, Nino, the sea is full of fish or whatever they say. I’m sure you’ll find someone better soon, not that I’ve looked into your future or anything.»</p><p>She had definitely looked into Nino’s future love life, but she wouldn’t (and couldn’t) admit it.</p><p>«Let’s just get in class, I want this day to be over as soon as possible.»</p><p>Nino and Alix walked in their class, and noticed that two people were still absent: Marinette and Adrien. He knew Adrien would be in New York, but usually when Marinette wasn’t coming to school she advised him, Alya or someone about her absence. The spot that Marinette occupied a month ago was now Lila’s and Marinette had taken Sabrina’s place next to Chloé. He sat down at his usual seat, until he heard the second bell, which indicated that the lesson was starting in less than a minute.</p><p>In fact, Madame Bustier showed up at the door, but instead of her usual cheerful smile, she had a sad grin printed on her face. Her belly now made her look like she had ingested an enormous watermelon without chewing first, since she had been pregnant for almost eight months now. She sat down on her chair, and she announced: «Guys, I’m really sorry about what I’m about to say, but your classmate Marinette had an incident last Friday and is currently in a comatose state. We still don’t know if she will come back at school.</p><p>The whole class fell silent, except for some heavy breaths and cries. One of the kindest people everyone had ever met, the best class representative that they ever elected, a friend to many and a shoulder to cry on for everybody was fighting between life and death.</p><p>Chloé was crying silently, the whole class had shed a tear, with the exception of Alix, who had cried more than enough in her borrow weeks ago, and Lila, whose face was almost triumphant. It made blood boil in the boy’s veins, even though his view was blocked by the tears on his glasses.</p><p>After a couple of minutes, the teacher started explaining.</p><p>«Excuse me» said Chloé, her face still stained with tears, «can I sit down next to Lahiffe, please?»</p><p>«Of course, Chloé.»</p><p>The blonde girl slipped away from her place, slowly sitting down next to Nino. She scribble down something on a small piece of paper, then she passed it to him.</p><p>“Sorry, I just didn’t feel like staying alone. -C”</p><p>That was very out of character for her.</p><p>“Don’t worry. I don’t mind at all. -N”</p><p>“I will say this once and never again, so read it carefully you loser: thanks. -C”</p><p>Ok, she was the same ol’ Chloé. The two ended up writing to one another for the next four hours.</p>
<hr/><p>The afternoon arrived, and Nino and Alix had decided to go to visit their childhood friend at the hospital. Kim joined them right after finishing his swimming lesson. The three met a crying Kagami on their way to the hospital, probably she was there for their same reason.</p><p>Entering the hospital, Alix raised herself on the tip of her toes, making the boys giggle, and asked to the receptionist: «Hi, we’re here to see our friend, Marinette Cheng.»</p><p>The gentle woman nodded. «Yes, third floor, room 49, third door on the left. If possible try not to touch her too much, she has a couple of broken bones.»</p><p>The three walked silently up to the third floor. As they opened the door, they found a blond head already crying her eyes out next to the window. At the center of the room, instead, lied their friend, looking way too good for someone who just jumped from the fourth floor.</p><p>Chloé looked at them. «They told me everything: she has fallen from the roof of a building next to the metro station, she fortunately rolled before hitting the ground, so only her arms and left leg broke, but her head received a strong blow. It’s a miracle that she’s still alive. Also, she’s healing at an extremely high rate, she shouldn’t be healing so fast.»</p><p>Kim smirked bitterly. «Miraculous, for real.»</p><p>«What do you mean?» asked Alix, raising her eyebrow.</p><p>Kim gestured with his hands. «Come on, I’m one of the most stupid people in our class and I’ve noticed it, don’t tell me you still haven’t found out that-»</p><p>«Marinette is Ladybug» said Nino and Chloé as one.</p><p>«How did you find out?» asked Alix, impressed but not at all surprised.</p><p>«I mean, she always came late to school the day after an akuma attack, she’s never been akumatized, also she chose me to hold the turtle miraculous, and only people she knew to be her sidekicks. If you hadn’t understood before, Miracle Queen was a dead giveaway.» At Nino’s word, Chloé lowered her head.</p><p>«Anyways, they’ve also told me that she’s getting transferred in an hospital very far, so it’s your last chance for you morons to tell her your goodbyes and hope that she hears you.» Chloé said, before coming back to take her friend’s hand in hers.</p><p>«Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. My miraculous cure is working well, and she could even wake up before the end of December» Tikki said, resting on Alix’s shoulder, «you have to cover for her for the time necessary to her healing.»</p><p>Alix caressed the red kwami’s head. «Thanks Tikki, that means a lot to all of us.»</p>
<hr/><p>Marinette was trying some of her latest ballet choreography, when she felt a sudden, inexplicable sensation, like when it gets cold all of a sudden after you’ve left the pool. She needed to get in the water.</p><p>«You should try to take a dip in the pool» said the Voice, back to its normal, gas-like state.</p><p>Marinette put the tip of her toes in the water. It was exceptionally warm, like it had never been before. She immerged her body for the first time in the water. Naturally, as if she’d been told to do this, she placed herself on the surface of the water supine, letting only her ears being submerged by the liquid, and she slowly closed her eyes.</p><p>«Hey Mari, it’s me, Chlo. God, you’re so stupid, if only you had acted with a bit of brain and called me, I would’ve handled the situation. I’m the great Queen Bee, I would’ve helped you in any way I could, you wouldn’t have had to exhaust yourself like this. Stop pretending you’re a goddess of some kind and ask for help, please. I can’t stand watching you like this. I really care about you. Don’t ever do this to me again, understood?»</p><p>Was that Chloé’s voice?</p><p>«Hmm… Hey Mar, it’s me, ‘Lix. I am so sorry about this. Like, I knew it was going to happen and I… couldn’t tell you, time is indeed a fragile thing. I feel so guilty, I wish I could’ve done something, anything, to prevent you from feeling this. I’m such a failure of a friend, I don’t deserve being Bunnyx, and even less being your friend.»</p><p>“Oh, Alix” Marinette thought, “it’s not your fault, don’t feel like this.”</p><p>«I’ll try my best to make up for your absence. I know Genevieve is going to kill us with exercises and choreographies now that her best ballerina is gone. But, I can handle this. And feel free to punch me as soon as you recover.»</p><p>“I won’t, Alix.”</p><p>«Hi, Nettie.»</p><p>“Nino!”</p><p>«It’s… wow. I would’ve never thought that something like this could happen. I’ve known you for what, thirteen years? And still, I’ve only ever seen you with small, insignificant bruises on your knees at best. So, you certainly did something unexpected, didn’t you? But never do this again. I know you’re going to fight, I know I’ll see you soon because you’re so strong, Mari, you’ve always been. I can’t wait to hug you again.»</p><p>“It’s the same for me, Nino!”</p><p>«Hey, Nette! Damn, I thought I was the craziest one in our class.»</p><p>Kim?</p><p>«You’ve officially gained the title for “coolest person of the year”. Like, I’ll never ever have that title ever again, you know? Being Ladybug is the coolest thing someone could do. I can’t wait to have a race on Paris rooftops with you, once you’ve healed. You can be the coolest, but I bet I’m still the fastest. Don’t worry, I’ll let you win if you ask me to.»</p><p>Marinette giggled. Then she heard nothing. The water around her started getting inexplicably cold and darker. She felt the urge to get out of the water. She sat down on one of the plastic tanning beds, as the sky started getting darker and darker, until it was completely covered by grey clouds. And just like that, it started hailing. The hard pieces of ice fell on her pale skin, causing pain and bruises.</p><p>A couple of seconds later, the material form of the Voice covered her with what looked like their coat. She felt the warm garment fall on her shoulders, and let herself slowly fall asleep covered by the bright and soft object.</p>
<hr/><p>Lila had just escorted a sad Alya to her house, crocodile tears rolling on her face. Now she was finally home, cheering about her final victory: she would finally be the most popular girl in her class. And now, she even had an ace up her sleeve.</p><p>Nobody except for her knew, but on Friday she had found a small, butterfly looking brooch on her way to the metro station near the gym. It looked shiny and powerful, so she had taken it. Little did she know, the brooch was actually the butterfly miraculous. It wasn’t until she brought it home, she found out Nooro lived in that jewellery.</p><p>So that day, after school, she replaced the matching bow-like brooch she had almost always on with the miraculous, which immediately mutated and became a small, black ribbon made of silk, that definitely didn’t contrast as much as the purple and white brooch. She grinned evilly.</p><p>«Nooro, dark wings rise!»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Lila is the Pain in the Ass™, also I'm trying my best to keep it in a kind-of-chronological order, but my inability to write consistently is killing me (and I-). Also, I've put 30 as chapter number, but it's indicative in a "it might be even longer" kind of way. In this period I have the time and the creativity to write a whole chapter almost every day, but I can't promise for the next weeks. In the next chapter I'm planning on showing some characters I haven't shown yet.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Heirloom</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Agreste family's backstory.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Your daily dose of Fuck Emilie Juice :) Anyway, this is a long ass chapter, but it's also one of the only two/three that I will dedicate to the Agrestes. Also, I'm GabeNath trash, forgive me. Enjoy.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His son was abroad since Saturday. He was very worried for him. First, Gabriel found out Adrien was Chat Noir, and decided to take a pause from wearing the miraculous for a couple of days, and the power of the brooch slowly started fading: he wasn’t sick for power anymore, he realized how far from his true goal he had actually been dragged. Second, he finally talked to a therapist, who made him realize the abusive behavior he had, and the fact that it only had one source: Emilie. Third, he finally opened his eyes: he was in love with Nathalie, he had always been. And last but not least, he surrendered, returned the brooch to Ladybug and, with the help of his son, he finally ended his wife’s misery. All in the last two weeks.</p><p>«Gabriel, is everything alright?» asked the black haired woman, who laid next to him in his bed, wearing her nightgown.</p><p>«I’m just worried. About the travelling, about Adrien, about you, my dear.»</p><p>Nathalie put on her glasses. «Why me?»</p><p>Gabriel raised himself on his arms. «Well, the peacock miraculous has severely damaged your health, and you’re just now starting to get better, I wonder what…»</p><p>«Hey, listen. If I’m better now it’s because Ladybug has kept her promise and has found a way to fix my miraculous, also I’ve only used it what? Five, six times at most. Don’t worry, I won’t end up like Emilie, I’m not going anywhere.» She smiled, caressing her lover’s cheek.</p><p>«What would I do without you?» he said, wrapping her up in his arms.</p><p>Half an hour later, the two of them were on the limousine, getting to the airport. They were softly cuddling, while their chauffeur, Igor Ille, was watching them, with the expression of someone that knows it all.</p><p>«Why did you let Adrien go first?» Nathalie asked gently.</p><p>Gabriel smiled. «It was my therapist’s advice, I wanted to give him some time to stay alone, away from everything. You remember when we were his age, how much we cherished time away from our parents.»</p><p>«Of course I remember, your drunk teenage ass is unforgettable.» Nathalie and Gabriel laughed.</p><p>«By the way, have you heard about Marinette? That girl in Adrien’s class, she’s the one who won your contest, Sabine Cheng’s daughter.» The assistant said, her tone now more serious.</p><p>«Sabine’s daughter? What happened?»</p><p>«She’s fallen in a coma, it looks like she had an accident.»</p><p>«Wow, I wonder how has Suyin reacted, if I remember she was all sunshine when we were in high school.»</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>«Oh, come on Gabby! You can’t be serious. She’s clearly interested in you, damnit. Stop being such a pussy and ask her out.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Sabine! Stop! He isn't ready, he will do everything at his own pace, don't push him too hard.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Come on, Dominique, you too know he can't go on like this, he has to man up! She's complimented him, has tried to look through his sketches, she clearly told you she's single Gabe, stop complaining like a bitch and ask her out. Do I need to remind you that my mom has taught me Kung Fu? And judo. So do it or I'll kick your ass.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>An 18 years old Gabriel Agreste looked around: he wanted to find Nathalie to ask her about this, instead he ended up asking to the most outgoing and cheerful girl he was friend with and her way too relaxed desk mate.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He finally spotted the girl he was searching for.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Come on, Sabs, stop bitching about Gabby's love life when you don't want to accept Tom's advances. He's tried to ask you out since forever but you always reject him» continued Dominique, slowly lifting his eyebrow.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Suyin flushed, rage coming through her grey irises. «How many times do I have to say this to you, Nick? I don't want a relationship right now, my mom expects a lot from me and the conservatory and the concerts take up the majority of my time. Also, he's too insistent, he's asked me out about five times now, I have never even said yes once.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Oh, yes, as always. It's getting boring, Cheng, just tell him you don't like him.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Suyin's eyes flickered. «I'll give you three seconds. Three...»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The boy ran, soon followed by the small ravenette.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nathalie came near Gabriel, her hair that was black at the roots but red at the tips was freely falling on her back. She was dressed with a red t-shirt and black jeans, a studded leather jacket covering her shoulders.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Loud as always» said Nathalie fondly, «but Su's right.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I don't know, Nath, even if she looks interested she's still a freaking model, maybe she was just admiring my designs professionally.» Gabriel dived down his hands in his white trousers pockets.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Well, if you don't try you'll never find out. It's better to regret trying than living with the remorse of not having done it.» With that, Nathalie turned on her heels, her combat boots screeching on the ground, and got to her class. He was about to follow her, when the bell rang.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>One hour later, the class had finished their lessons for the day. Sabine, who was wearing a big pair of blue flared jeans and a white sweater, came out of the class with her closest friends, Nadja and Camille. When the three passed around the corridors, every boy's jaw dropped. Gabriel was used to the scene. Sabine shot him a subtle glance and winked, and soundlessly told him to ask Emilie out.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Emilie was a beautiful, sweet young girl that came that year to study from abroad. She had very long, blond hair and beautiful emerald eyes. Her face had perfect proportions, and even though she was a model, she wanted to be an actress. That was all he knew about her. And that was enough for him to be completely head over heels for her. There wasn't a moment when he wasn't complaining about her possibily not liking him, and even his best friend Victor wanted to punch him in the face.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He took a deep breath. He had to do this. She was leaving, he had about two minutes before her car would've arrived.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Emilie!» he said way too excited. He flushed and calmed down his tone. He needed to be convincing. «Can we talk?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She turned around, her beautiful light blue dress flying all around her tiny waist. «Of course, Gabriel. What do you want to talk about?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Would you- would you like to go out with me sometimes?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Silence. He knew, he shouldn't have said that, it would've saved him from the embarrassment of being rejected in front of all the school. He was such a-</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Yes, I'd love to» she said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He started smiling like an idiot. She looked behind her shoulders, to see her father's car entering the parking lot. She then quickly pressed a kiss on the boy's cheek.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«See you tomorrow, Gabriel.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Before he could answer, she was already gone. He had his hand planted on his cheek like an idiot. Victor, Andr</em>
  <em>è</em>
  <em> and Sabine run up to him, cheering and giving him friendly pats on the shoulders.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nathalie smiled from her reading spot: her best friend had done it.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>«Run, you idiot!»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He was swearing under his breath. Damn the fucking managers. He was late to his first child's birth. The baby wasn't born yet and he already felt like a terrible father.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>His mother had given him a kick in the butt and told him to not let his girlfriend wait for him, since he had never given birth and had no idea of how terrible it could be.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He rushed to the hospital, he really hoped he was still in time. He hadn't planned on having a child so young, especially when his company was becoming so successful and his life looked like it would be stable for a long, long time.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Still, he was twenty-two years old and a father. It felt a bit overwhelming, if he was completely honest.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>After three hours of meeting, and another one of traffic in the middle of Paris at noon, he finally arrived at the hospital.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I need to see my wife.» He had run to the reception, he looked definitely like a mess.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Name?» </em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Emilie Graham-De Vanily. » </em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Room 32, second floor, should be the twelfth door on the right.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He run up the stairs, hoping with all his body that everything was going well. When he finally arrived, he looked in and found his wife calmly lulling their newborn child.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Come in.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gabriel hesitated. The small creature looked so frail, he was almost scared of breathing in his same direction.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Come say hi to Adrien, dad. Your baby boy is waiting for you.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The very moment he held his child in his arms, he felt lik he wanted to protect that child from everything, to treat him like a treasure, a trophy, show him to everyone but keep him safe.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>His wife took his words and his thoughts to an extreme level.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>When Adrien was two years old, Gabriel and Emilie married: the ceremony took place in an enormous church, and the party was in their newly bought mansion. There were more that five hundred guests, most of which were famous. Nathalie, who had been recently hired by the Gabriel company as an assistant, was keeping an eye on her boss and high school friend’s son. He was very energic for his age, constantly asking questions to the black haired woman or pointing to places he wanted to go to. She loved that kid, he looked exactly like his mother. At a certain point, she recognized a red cheongsam. Sabine looked beautiful as always, her long raven hair pulled back in an elegant chignon framed her pale face, with mostly Chinese features, and the knee-long dress enhanced her curves, but she wasn’t half as radiant as she remembered her being in high school. In her arms there was a small girl, even smaller than Adrien with neatly cut black hair and beautiful big blue eyes, who wore a long sleeved pink dress, that made her look like a princess. In fact, Adrien saw her and pointed at her, whispering in Nathalie's ear that very same word.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Princess!»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nathalie smiled, fixing her purple dress to come down next to the boy. «No, Adrien, she’s just a girl.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Adrien shook his head and crossed his arms. «Princess!»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He then proceeded to grab the assistant’s hand and drag her across the room, stopping when he arrived near the girl, who was now on the floor holding her mother’s hand.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sabine looked down and smiled. Then Adrien pointed to the girl and asked: «Are you a princess?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Both Suyin and Nathalie smiled when the small girl hid behind her mother’s legs. «No, I’m Marinette.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Adrien.» The two children held hands, and they were inseparable for most of the evening.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Gabriel and Emilie went on their honeymoon the next two weeks. They didn’t want to stay too long, both being at the peak of their career. But, when they came back, nothing was the same, Nathalie had noticed it. The first year of their marriage, Emilie was absent at least three times a week, always coming in to meet with her child and to talk with her husband: she hired her old babysitter to watch over her son. Gabriel was always there, but now he spent more time having meetings than with his son.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When Adrien turned four, things got even weirder. Emilie was always away for her movies, and came back home two or three times a year. Gabriel hired more employees, and his company started getting even bigger, making him always stay closed in his office to come out with new ideas. When Gabriel suggested that it could be a great solution to send Adrien to kindergarten, all he received were angry screams from his wife, who told him how he was better than other children his age, he should stay in the elite, and that places like that were dangerous for more well-known people. To add to all this mess, her nanny had retired. Every two weeks, Emilie called back to Nathalie, making up absurd excuses, and then proceeding to fire the unlucky babysitter that was watching over Adrien for that month. After the twelfth, Nathalie become his part time nanny, until the boy turned eleven.</em>
</p><p><em>After Adrien turned six, Emilie never showed up. She called home once a month and that was it. She came back once a year at most, usually to supervise over her son’s private lessons and see how his piano lessons were going. She wanted, no, she </em>needed<em> him to be at least half as successful as his mother, so she didn’t give him any space: basketball, fencing, modelling, piano lessons, occasional dance classes, Chinese and Japanese lessons were the only activities allowed, letting him time to read and to meet with his only two friends, Chlo</em><em>é</em><em> and Felix, once a month. </em></p><p>
  <em>Nathalie had to admit, the poor boy’s life made him miserable. But every time she tried to point that out to his boss, he always offered her the same answer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«It’s Emilie’s decision. She knows what she’s doing.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Despite never seeing each other, the man was still completely enamored of her.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>If possible, things got even worse about one year before Emilie’s coma. After years of world travelling, she came home. She still behaved as if she was the queen in her realm, despite the fact that she hadn’t been in the mansion for at least five years. But now, she looked miserable, her skin pale and greyish, her irises almost entirely covered by her pupils, her lower abdomen looked twice the size it used to be. Nathalie then remembered what that same woman had said three years or so earlier: “Never leave Paris, it’s too dangerous out there”. Whether she was seriously worried about their health or she was trying to cover up something, Nathalie never knew.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She knew she shouldn’t have listened to the two spouses’ private conversation. But when she heard the words “If something happens to me, use this, we must retrieve the two most powerful jewels, so I can come back and finish my job, then we can stay together forever” Nathalie couldn't help but listen. In fact, Emilie left about two days later, and Nathalie searched: she should’ve been in London, where mysteriously had recently reappeared a powerful supervillain, whose name was Peafowl. Apparently, she created havoc by leading her always growing army of clones, trying to retrieve one of the most important pieces of her family heirlooms that was now kept as part of the Crown Jewels. Apparently, this specific tiara gave to whoever wore it the ability to mind control. She had no doubt: that had to be Emilie. As expected, after the almost complete destruction of her army and the inability to fight back the constant attacks of the local heroes, Emilie came back at home. She had a very high fever, many problems breathing and getting fed, and every day it got worse. In less than three weeks, she had fallen in an irreversible coma. The doctors couldn’t find a cure, it was a completely new disease, but Gabriel didn’t let them investigate any further. Following her instructions, he put her in her glass coffin, which kept her physically alive.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Some months after he put on the butterfly brooch, and from there on the story has already been told.</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Adrien had just finished his last photo shooting of the day, and was reclining back on a chair, barefoot, with a long sleeved black turtleneck and a pair of grey jeans, his hair neatly put up on his head and a pair of black sneakers, all marked Gabriel, of course. He turned on his phone to see if someone had texted him: Nino and Chloé, as usual, and a lost call from Alix, and a vocal message from the pink haired girl as well. Everything seemed normal, nothing out of the usual, but it just didn’t feel right. His father was currently having a work call in his room at their hotel. Nathalie had told him that once they met for dinner, his father wanted to talk to him. Wasn’t finding out that you’ve been fighting against your own father a big enough punishment? And what the hell did he do this time? Breath?</p><p>The only thing left to console him was his lucky charm. God, he missed Marinette like air, he missed their friendship and the possibility of running away to her room as Chat Noir every time he felt like it, their evenings passed in complete silence or laughing their butts off, her small gifts and her pastries, the warmness of her hugs. During the last period she looked exhausted, always working, also she had lost a lot of weight, her skin got paler, her eyebags darker. He was so worried about his Princess. He still remembered vividly when he asked her to come to New York fashion show with him, and a small light lit up in her eyes, but it immediately faded, when she answered that she couldn’t leave Paris because of her work and her many responsibilities, especially now that her online shop had started being successful and the bakery was selling well. He promised himself he would bring her a gift, at least. If he could, he would’ve bought a castle for her, but who wouldn’t do that for their best friend?</p><p>Hugo, his driver in New York, called him to go home. He politely said goodbye to the stylists and the photographer, before collapsing on the backseat of the limousine. The car was taking turns around the central streets of Manhattan in a relaxing way, that made Adrien sleepier and sleepier every minute. But then he saw it: it was perfect, the perfect gift for her, it was long enough to cover her whole body from her shoulders to her feet and, most importantly, it would've reminded her of him.</p><p>«Can you stop here, please?» Adrien asked.</p><p>The car stopped near the sidewalk, and the boy launched himself in the shop. Five minutes later, he came out of the door with a 1,20 meters tall black cat plush, that he proceeded to push with force inside the black car.</p><p>After finally arriving at the hotel and placing the gigantic stuffed animal near his bed, he finally arrived in the hotel dining room. Table 36, as always. He was surprised to notice that Gabriel and Nathalie were sat together, laughing too. He blinked in surprise, when a smiling Nathalie called him. What the heck was happening?</p><p>Gabriel tried his best to recompose himself. «Adrien, I’m sorry if I’ve made you worried. Today I have good news.»</p><p>«What do you mean, father?»</p><p>«Listen, I know I’ve been the worst father ever, and your mother didn’t help much with that. I’ve put you through a lot and apologies will never be enough. That’s why I want you to know that I will accept anything you ask me, like stopping some of your lessons or having more time with your friends, even to stop modelling entirely, if you want. I want to try to make up, I really want to. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ll understand if you can’t forgive me. Just know that I really am sorry for what I’ve done, and I’m ready to change completely.»</p><p>«I- I think that I’d like to stop with Chinese lessons, and also modelling, after this show of course. I- I can’t forgive you, because you have nothing to apologize for in my eyes, you’re a victim of my mother’s problematic behavior just as me or Nathalie. And I am Chat Noir, I know very well how the miraculous work and why you were so power sick and evil, that’s what has turned my mother crazy in the first place. But still, what’s the news?»</p><p>Gabriel and Nathalie looked to one another. Then, in unison: «We’re a couple.»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ok just to clarify: Gabriel and Sabine are the same age, while Emilie is one year younger and Nathalie is two years younger. MY heart definitely melt while writing the princess bit. Also, today even earlier since I wrote the majority of this yesterday night just before my phone decided to die for good :,)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Tenderness and sorrow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sabine's adventures at the lawyer's office, Marinette flies to America.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>After writing this chapter, my search history looks like I'm either trying to kill somebody, trying to divorce from someone or having a romantic relationship with a comatose person. Anyways, enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>«Madame Cheng» the man greeted her, shaking her hand as she entered the office, that looked at least one hundred years old. The waiting area had many old chairs, and the studio had three enormous old bookcases, full of records and documents turned yellow over time, and an equally old wooden desk.</p><p>«Thank you for receiving me, monsieur Leclerc, I’m sorry if I sent you a notice just on Saturday.»</p><p>The old man was slim and tall, he had a pair of round glasses on his crooked nose, a short white beard and white moustache, with short straight hair. «You don’t have to worry about these kind of formalities, Sabine, you are part of the family, like your father was. So, why are you in my office today?»</p><p>Sabine sat down in front of the big desk. She breathed heavily. «My husband has filed for a divorce, and I have agreed. I need the papers and everything to just…»</p><p>«I understand, madame. Did you and your husband already decide about the division of property?» The man asked, starting to type something in his computer.</p><p>«Yes, we’d done it six months ago. Here.» Sabine handed a dossier to the man.</p><p>«Mhmm… let me see.» The lawyer started reading through. «Here it says that you would keep your car, you’d be entitled for the first two years or until you find a job to receive one thousand euros monthly, you’d have the complete custody of Marinette Cheng and custody of Jeremie Dupain 24 days a month, 10 months a year. Is that ok with you?»</p><p>Sabine nodded. «It’s ok, but how long will it take?»</p><p>«You have already showed me you had filed a legal separation, so once he returns me or his own lawyer the papers whit his signature on, it’s done and you’re no longer married to him. If I’m not indescreet, may I know the final reason of your divorce?»</p><p>«Well, my first daughter is not his, and that was ok until she started having her own passions and being good at them. He is somehow envious of her, because he’s literally always at work and never cares about his family. He has also made me work in his pastry shop when I had an amazing and even more profitable job. That’s why we filed a separation six or seven months ago, when he first started being very mean to my daughter» said Suyin, her hands tightly closed in fists.</p><p>«Unfortunately, it’s more common than you think. The problem is that most of the time, the parents don’t notice or don’t care. You’re the first one that I’ve met that divorced from their spouse for their child’s safety, but I’ve seen dozens of cases of children that have reported their step parents abuses years after their childhood» explained Leclerc, passing her a sheaf of documents, «I’ll need you to sign all of those, then your husband will have to sign them too. You can either bring me both the copies or your husband can take one of them to his lawyer.»</p><p>Sabine put her purse on her shoulders. «Thank you, I’ll be back as soon as possible.»</p><p>She left the room, put on her coat and went back to her car. She felt relieved. Soon, if he didn’t change his mind, this whole hell would be over. She put on her seat belt and turned on the car. She stopped next to the bakery. Entering the house, she heard Tom and his young assistant working in the kitchen downstairs. She placed the documents on the kitchen table, and put her signature where needed. Five minutes later, she left the house, screaming to her future ex-husband to sign the papers.</p><p>She drove to the hospital. She had talked with Tim Drake the other day: they wanted to take Marinette to their private clinic now that they knew she was a Wayne. Sabine didn’t feel like declining: if it meant that her daughter would get all the cures she needed, she could bear some time spent away from her daughter. Especially now that a lot of things were happening. She still needed to buy a house, find a job and put her life back together. But now, she had to accompany her daughter as far as she could. Room 49, as always: as she entered the room, she noticed that there were two people already inside. One of them was a nurse, who left immediately after she had come inside. The other, was a young man, in his mid twenties, who had black hair and wore a dark blue suit.</p><p>«Sabrine?» he asked, a big grin on his face.</p><p>She had to hold a giggle. «Well, almost. I’m Sabine, or Suyin, Mari’s mom.»</p><p>«Sorry, I’m Dick Grayson, adopted son of Bruce Wayne. Marinette is… beautiful, she really does look like Bruce, don’t you think?»</p><p>Sabine sat near her daughter. «I wish she could open her eyes, they’re literally the same as Bruce.»</p><p>«We’ll see them soon, don’t worry.»</p><p>«Oh, I’m not worried, I know she’s more than strong enough to be able to wake up very soon. She’s always full of surprises, maybe she’ll amaze us even this time.» Suyin caressed the girl’s face, who relaxed a bit under her touch.</p><p>Richard got near his newfound sister. «Hi Marinette, I’m your brother Richard, I’ll take care of you, don’t worry.»</p><p>Suyin, suddenly, hugged the man. «Thank you» she whispered, but she couldn’t thank them all enough , for accepting Marinette in their family and for helping her, even after all Sabine did to keep them away.</p><p>Dick was surprised at first, but soon relaxed and hugged her back. «It’s nothing, really. We care a lot about our sister, you had to see everyone’s reactions when we found out she was our sister. Really, my siblings can’t wait to see her.»</p><p>A short woman entered the room, followed by a group of the ER staff.</p><p>«Sorry for the interruption, mister Grayson, but we’re ready.»</p><p>«Great. With your permission, madame Cheng.»</p><p>The four individuals in their red uniforms surrounded her hospital bed, taking the girl and the medical equipment attached to her body in an ambulance. Sabine got in the vehicle with them.</p><p>About fifteen minutes later, they entered in the airport by a secondary gate. A gigantic dark blue private jet, with the Wayne Enterprise logo printed on both sides. A group of five or six doctors came out of the plane, and quickly rushed to the girl’s side. Carefully they took away the IV and put her another one, then they scooped her up and put her on their own hospital bed. Sabine got closer and gave her daughter one last kiss on the forehead. Then, the American doctors brought the young girl on the airplane. Sabine shed a tear, and Dick placed a hand on her shoulder. The young man then marched to the jet. A little later, the plane got off to its flight to America.</p><hr/><p>White. All she saw was white and light. She couldn’t understand a thing, and the cold was stinging to the bone. So she kept walking, trying to ignore the fact that her whole body hurt like hell.</p><p>«Is anybody there? I need help, please!»</p><p>The simple white dress she was wearing wasn’t enough to repair her from the wind and the cold. Her arms were covering one another, in a desperate attempt to gain warmth.</p><p>Her ankles cracked, and she fell to the ground. Her black hair covered her vision. Some seconds later she got up, and finally saw something. In the distance, a small figure appeared.</p><p>«Alya! Alya help me!» Marinette screamed, running towards her best friend. When she got closer enough to try to touch her, the girl’s image disappeared.</p><p>Another person appeared in the nothingness. Tom, smiling.</p><p>«Dad!» In the same way as the previous image, it disappeared.</p><p>She tumbled down, as similar images alternated in front of her eyes. First, her mother, who looked like she was crying. Then, her little brother, with a  shocked expression on his face. Then, both Nino and Kim, who were holding her out their hands to help her get up. Next, both Chat Noir and Adrien, sat with their backs touching and crying. Chloé, with both her hands in front of her face. A group of six people she didn’t know showing her their backs, all with their heads facing the floor, like they were grieving. Lastly, directly in front of her, a grown up Bunnyx. She was strangely moving, but not fluidly: it looked more like different pictures, like different photograms.</p><p>«I’m sorry…» she said, the sound of her voice not coinciding with the images.</p><p>She disappeared, and Marinette heard a laughter. Multiple laughs. The ravenette turned around. A group of almost fifty people was laughing, including her classmates. As soon as she turned around, they stopped laughing. They multiplied, becoming a hundred, a thousand. All of them looked furious. They surrounded the girl, making her step back.</p><p>«Traitor!»</p><p>«Good-for-nothing!»</p><p>«You’re useless.»</p><p>«Your existence alone has made Paris a dangerous place to live in!»</p><p>«Go kill yourself, we don’t need a stupid clumsy girl as a superhero.»</p><p>She backed off, step after step, until she fell. She didn’t notice, but in the white place had formed a small portal, that the people were trying to make her fall in.</p><p>Below herself she felt only air. She found the courage to open her eyes, and she realized she was freefalling from a very high skyscraper in a dark city she had never seen before. It reminded her of a darker version of New York. The feeling of the fresh air tickled her skin. The sky was dark blue, and there were few stars visible. It felt all too peaceful, too… right? Did she already experience this feeling? Her eyes weren’t tearing up, from her mouth didn’t come out any scream, but why? Was she scared of death? Of course, like every human being, she should be scared of death. Then, why didn’t she want this all to stop? Why wasn’t she trying her hardest to block the fall? The truth was simple, yet she didn’t want to accept it. She didn’t want to end it all. She had so much to live for.</p><p>But how many times had she already given up opportunities to hang out with her friends like every normal teenager to finish up potions for stupid powerups? How many nights had she spent awake to try to translate the grimoire? Not to mention all the times her stepdad made her do extra work in the afternoon, or how nightmares polluted her sleep, making it impossible for her to fall asleep. The way she had become insufferable, apathetic, up to the point even Lila’s threats glided over her. The way she had so little free time, she ate once every two days if she was lucky. The continuous expectations, from Paris, Chat Noir, her family. The way it looked like everybody was waiting for her to make a mistake, to push her down the ladder she had built almost completely alone, making her angsty. The way, when she was falling asleep, tears stained her pillow, because alone, in the comfort of her room, was the only moment she could truly be herself, unhappy, because nothing mattered anymore.</p><p>She was about to hit the ground, when she collided with something else. Water. Dense, reddish water. Finally, warmness washed over her. She closed her eyes.</p><p>«Hey, Marinette, I’m Dick, your brother» said a voice.</p><p>She felt like she had heard similar words before, but couldn’t remember clearly.</p><p>She felt like something had taken her hand.</p><p>«If you can hear me, can you please hold my hand?»</p><p>She moved slowly in the liquid, but carefully started holding the mysterious voice’s hand. “His hand is so big!” she thought, caressing the palm with her thumb.</p><p>«Welcome home, Marinette Wayne.»</p><hr/><p>In the mansion, a whole new room was set up to be occupied by the young girl. When Dick arrived, it was near midnight, and nobody was home, except for Alfred, because of their usual night patrols.</p><p>When the remaining nurses were setting up her room, he tried to see if she could react to his voice. When the girl started caressing his hand, a wave of joy and warmness washed over him. He turned over.</p><p>«Miss, is it normal for someone who’s in a coma to move their hands?» he asked to the nearest nurse, who was putting back her thing to go home.</p><p>«It’s quite usual that people in a coma maybe have some small spasm, like grasping or moving slightly their limbs.»</p><p>«But… she caressed me, June. Like, with her thumb. Does this mean that she’s conscious?»</p><p>June the nurse smiled. «Well, she really is miraculous after all.»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>My phone has officially left me, so I'm going to be a bit slower to update, but nothing too serious, don't worry.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Realization</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Four days have passed since Marinette has been brought to America and her siblings are impatient. Marinette finds out about her own conditions, Adrien visits some old friend and Dick and Bruce have an heart-to-heart conversation about Bruce's feeling.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I may write the batfamily's character a bit ooc, I am aware, but it's mostly because I know them thanks to fanfictions. Anyways, tell me if I make any major mistake of any kind.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>«Hey, Voice. How long have you been here for?» asked Marinette, playing on the border of the pool.</p><p>The luminous creature smiled. «It depends. I’ve been on this roof since when you’ve arrived, so one week and three days ago. But, I’ve been in this place, in this city for about thirty years.»</p><p>«Wow, that’s a long time. I haven’t even lived that long.» Marinette balanced her body by putting her arms perpendicular to her body.</p><p>«I’m sure you’ll do it. What have you planned for the future?»</p><p>«Well, my dream is to become a fashion designer, to marry Adrien Agreste and have three children and most importantly an hamster. But I’m a bit too hopeful. Maybe I’ll just stay true to my superhero vocation and end up doing just that.»</p><p>«And would you be happy if that happened?»</p><p>The ravenette looked towards the horizon. «I think so. I barely have any time anymore, I don’t know if I could manage being both Ladybug and a successful designer. But if I have Chat Noir by my side, I think I can do anything.»</p><p>«That’s a good thing.»</p><p>«Indeed.» Marinette sat down, dipping her toes in the water. «I forgot to thank you, five days ago, when you took me out of the water after I accidentally fell asleep.»</p><p>«Have you heard anything, back then?»</p><p>«Apparently, I have a brother, whose name’s Dick. Probably a nickname, who would ever name their child like… Well, like that. He woke me up from a very bad dream, I must thank him when I see him.»</p><p>The Voice got closer to the girl. «Do you mind telling me what this dream was about?»</p><p>Marinette shook her head. «It was pretty scary. First, I was in this white, borderless place. Then, images of people appeared: most were my friends, there was a small group of people I have never met too. But, one at a time they disappeared. Then a lot of people pushed me into an opening, and then I was freefalling from a building. But before I hit the ground, Dick woke me up.»</p><p>«That must’ve been pretty scary.»</p><p>«Yeah… I usually have my yoyo or Chat Noir ready to save me. In that moment I was all alone in this big dark city, it looked a lot like an American city, but I don’t know exactly. There was a tall building I was falling from, it was dark grey and had a stylized W as a logo, I think.»</p><p>«Probably you were in Gotham. I know that city like the palm of my hand.»</p><p>«My brother has told me that I was in America, so that’s what happened in the dream too. Even though I don’t understand, I’m still here, I haven’t travelled to America, what does this mean?»</p><p>The Voice took a deep breath. «I knew this moment was coming. What is the last thing that you remember since you showed up here?»</p><p>«I had finished battling a group of criminals that wanted the miraculouses. I remember having to put back the miracle box in my room. But after handing over the criminals to Raincomprix, I was going home and that’s my last memory.»</p><p>«You have fallen from a building.»</p><p>«Oh…» Marinette’s eyes were becoming sadder by the minute. «A lot of things make sense.»</p><p>A couple of minutes passed, before she realized something vital. «Oh no, no, no, no. That means…  Paris could be in danger once again.»</p><hr/><p>
  <em>«So, this means we can know each other’s identity now?» Chat Noir was smiling so brightly, Marinette didn’t know if she could’ve handled it for much more.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Yes, kitty, but we should wait, let me just finish fixing the peacock miraculous, so we can help Mayura’s conditions. Then we can show who we are, even tell it to the world if you want.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Chat Noir hugged her. She melted, becoming even redder than before. «Yes! And maybe you’ll finally change your mind and will accept my invite.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ladybug punched him. «Humble down, Chaton! We’ll see, maybe things aren’t the same as they look like.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Anyways, how can we make sure that the butterfly miraculous won’t be used for bad ever again?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«We can’t, Chat. But I’m trying to come up with something that can help us to make sure it won’t fall in the wrong hands. For now, I’ll take it with me everywhere we go. I have a feeling that the miracle box isn’t a safe enough place. I’ve hidden it very well, even took it momentarily out of my house not to reveal my civilian identity, but I feel like this ain’t enough. You’ve seen what happened with the eagle miraculous last year. Not even a team of adult superheroes scared someone who was extremely dedicated to find the miraculous, and pretty much everyone knows now what power the butterfly miraculous has. It makes it an even bigger target.»</em>
</p><hr/><p>«Oh no.»</p><p>«What are you thinking about, Adrien?» Plagg said, ingurgitating a whole piece of Camembert.</p><p>Adrien started pacing around his hotel room. «Do you remember when me and LB talked two weeks or so ago? She told me she would bring the butterfly miraculous with her all the time. She has proven it to me and more than once.»</p><p>«So, what does this mean?»</p><p>«This means that the butterfly miraculous could’ve been lost when Ladybug had that accident, so somebody could definitely end up using it for the wrong things.»</p><p>Adrien stopped, pressing his left fist against his right palm. «I have to go back in Paris.»</p><p>«No!» Plagg flew in front of Adrien. «Stop worrying Adrien. You deserve some rest from the routine, also there’s a whole squad of superheroes ready to punch the bastard and steal back the miraculous if needed. Breathe.»</p><p>«You’re right. It’s just… this whole situation is stressing me out, Plagg. God, I wish this never happened. I just… need to cool down.»</p><p>Plagg laid on thin air. «You know the words.»</p><p>«Plagg, claws out!»</p><p>The now transformed boy jumped from the room window, landing on the nearest rooftop. He extended his baton, arriving to the roof of one of the highest building in that neighborhood. From there, the view was spectacular, even if it sill stung a little bit. It reminded him of the accident with Uncanny Valley. But still, he remembered of the time he danced floating on top of a building with his good friend Marinette. Warmth surrounded him in that moment. He wished she could be with him in that exact moment, but at the same time she probably was home surrounded by dozens of commissions and he wouldn’t want to take away her precious time, especially now that she was starting making her own name on the market.</p><p>He was about to get up and leave, when a slender hand touched his back. Uncanny Valley sat next to him, with a big grin on her face.</p><p>«Hello, Chat Noir.»</p><p>He smiled back. «Hey, Aeon. It’s been a while.»</p><p>«Indeed. What are you doing here in New York?»</p><p>Chat Noir smiled sheepishly. «Nothing, just a small family vacancy-»</p><p>Aeon raised her eyebrow. «Remember that I can see clearly who you are, Chat Noir. Don’t mess with me.»</p><p>«Fine, jeez, Jesse has really had her impact on you, you know? I’m here for a fashion show anyway. Shouldn’t you be at school or something?»</p><p>«I’s almost five in the afternoon, we have already finished with school today. By the way, would you like to come to our house? It’s not too distant.»</p><p>«Okay, but I have to be back for dinner.»</p><p>Uncanny Valley and Chat Noir jumped from building to building for a couple of blocks, before landing in a small alley to change back to their normal self. Aeon led him to a near building, which had about twenty floors. They took the elevator up to the seventeenth floor. It looked way larger than from outside. She opened the door with her keys, and welcomed the boy in: there was a big, open space living room in front of the enormous windows, right next to the entrance door there was the kitchen, that looked a bit industrial. Behind the couch, there were the stairs that led to a loft, which had two doors, that Aeon told him were her mothers’ room and studio, meanwhile on the wall near the entrance door there was their room and a bathroom. It was small, compared to the Agreste mansion, but it still was pretty big.</p><p>«Hey, Jesse, we have a special guest.»</p><p>Jesse, who had her hair down and was currently doing her homework on the kitchen counter, raised her head. «Adrien! What the hell are you doing there?»</p><p>She hugged him goofily, before making him sit down on the couch. «So, how’s everything going in Paris?»</p><p>«Good, I think. I haven’t really talked with anybody since I got there two weeks ago.» He suddenly remembered a very important thing. «Actually, Ladybug has been hurt. She’s in a coma.»</p><p>Aeon didn’t say anything, but her mechanical eyes started tearing up. «What happened?»</p><p>«I… don’t know. It’s not something known to the public.»</p><p>Jesse tilted her head. «And are your classmates ok?»</p><p>«Now that Hawkmoth has been defeated, yes. I’ve heard Nino half an hour ago, and the others have written on the class group chat this morning. But I haven’t heard of Marinette in a while, I’ve texted her but she has yet to answer.»</p><p>Jesse knitted her eyebrows. «We should ask to someone else. I’ll try to phone Alya if it isn’t too late already.» She got up and went to their room to talk.</p><p>Adrien tried comforting Aeon, who shook her head and put on a smile. But then, Jesse came into the room with a shocked face. «Adrien, you have to hear about this.»</p><hr/><p>«She’s been here for almost a week now, can we finally go see her?» asked Jason, with his legs resting on the corner of the table.</p><p>Dick hit his lower limbs with a stack of documents.</p><p>«Until the doctors tell us it’s safe to visit her, we better not bother her. And even then, it’s best to let her rest. Go one at a time, except for Damien. If you want to go, you’ll have to go with either one of the people that are present in this room or Alfred. Have I been clear?»</p><p>«But dad…» Damien was clenching his teeth. «You don’t trust me.»</p><p>Bruce shook his head. «I trust you, but I don’t trust your ability to handle anger, and you also can be very loud when you want to. The last thing she needs right now is to hear someone screaming.»</p><p>Damien lowered his head, and Tim put a hand on his shoulder. He knew that the boy could be a bit of a hothead, but he really was trying his best.</p><p>«Okay then, I’ll go ask the doctors if we can. Don’t forget that meeting, B.» Tim said those words, then he and the others left the room.</p><p>But Dick didn’t move. «Are you afraid, Bruce?»</p><p>«What?» The older man looked at him in disbelief.</p><p>«You were the only one who was authorized by the clinic to go and visit her, yet you haven’t done it.»</p><p>Bruce lowered his head. «I didn’t have the time to.»</p><p>«Liar. You’ve had plenty of time to do it. Why are you so scared of her? I mean… you didn’t do anything like this when we found out about Damien two or so years ago. Do you fear she’ll hate you? Do you think you will be too attached to her? Seriously, what are you so afraid of?»</p><p>«I’m afraid I won’t be able to let her go if I meet her. She’s the daughter I didn’t know I had, and she was born out of love. You have no idea of how much I loved her mother back then.»</p><p>Dick looked at his adoptive father’s eyes. This didn’t convince him in the slightest. «Is it because you think you’ll treat us unfairly? Or because you think she’ll be too frail?»</p><p>«It’s not about that. It’s… it reminds me of a time when I was really, really happy. She’s one of those things I am too afraid to lose, now that I know that she exists. I’m afraid that by knowing her I’ll put her in much bigger danger than before.»</p><p>Dick turned on his phone. «Look, she’s already well known thanks to that ex-girlfriend of yours. How has she taken this picture is unknown to me. But someone a with a bit of knowledge and maybe a bit of photo editing skills will understand.»</p><p>He turned the phone, so that Bruce could see. There was a news article on the screen.</p><p>
  <strong>Does Bruce Wayne have another daughter?</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Yesterday, 10<sup>th</sup> of December, a Wayne Enterprise private plane has arrived in Gotham’s airport between 11 and 12 pm. From the jet, a whole group of medical experts has came out carrying a stretcher and medical equipment. As shown in the photo, on the stretcher was placed a small person with long black hair. It’s speculated that it could be another one of Bruce’s kids, thanks especially to his three older sons’ post on Twitter, that stated something along the lines of “it's a girl”.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>We’ll try to investigate further. But now, two questions arise: has she been adopted? And if not, who could be the mother?</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Victoria Vale for the Gotham Gazette.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Bruce was about to spontaneously combust. «That b…»</p><p>«We’ve not been careful enough, and we’re sorry, but you should try and reason with her, especially since Suyin will be there to see her daughter soon. We don’t want any speculations, especially since we still don’t know Marinette even near enough to talk on her behalf.»</p><p>«What do you mean that Sabine will be here soon?» The one and only Batman was panicking.</p><p>«Yeah, we’ve talked about this. She’ll take a plane to Gotham as soon as her daughter is awake.»</p><p>«I have to talk with Vicki Vale, now.»</p><p>Dick half-closed his eyes. «What’s the problem? You didn’t look so worried when we talked last week.»</p><p>«That’s because I thought she wouldn’t accept. There’s an enormous problem: Sabine knows I’m Batman.»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Happy 2021 everybody! I wanted to make a cringe joke about writing this next year but I don't think I will. Just, I wish you all happiness :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Thorns</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The rise of Swallowtail, Lila Rossi's alter ego takes a bad turn when an unexpected ally shows up.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I literally couldn't help it, I had to make the outfits all over again or I would've died. It's also convenient to the plot. Anyways, we finally see a bit of the life in Paris now, even though they won't be the most important and frequent parts of the story. Also, is Duusu a male or a female? I guess we'll never know. I hope you enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Lila put on the small piece of jewelry, she felt powerful enough to break the world. Today, she had nothing to do but wait, and that’s what she intended to do. Sitting in the comfort of her room, the newfound miraculous holder was ready to attack at any given moment. She wore a neat pair of black spandex leggings, and a purple top that ended behind her skin like butterflies’ wing tails. A small piece of fabric that collected the waist to the arms resembled the upper part of a butterfly’s wings. Her hair was kept on a small bun on the back of her head, that left out her usual two sausage-looking ponytails, that were now violet. A sophisticated black venetian mask covered the upper part of her face. A black metallic rod in her hands, which contained a white butterfly she had previously captured in the purple amethyst set on one of the ends. On her chest, where once was the small black bow, now there was a violet butterfly. She smirked, looking at her new outfit. Now she had to wait.</p>
<hr/><p>Sabine marched out of the studio with tears of sadness and relief. Her old boss had begged her to let him re-hire her and gave her back her job as soon as she asked. And, with the money she saved when she still lived in her father’s house, she could afford a small apartment in a near neighborhood, that was even nearer to her job. She told her son about the divorce. Jeremy had luckily understood, and he helped her in every way he could. She was very proud of him, her son was the most intelligent kid she knew. They had started packing their things the very day the two formalized their divorce. Now she was starting to pack Marinette’s things: as soon as she entered her daughter’s room she found on her desk a small blue brooch, that looked like a peacock’s tail. She took it in her hands and a small blue floating creature came out of it.</p><p>Duusu looked around: «Marinette, where are you? It has worked, the miraculous is fixed.»</p><p>«What are you?» asked Sabine, with her arms crossed.</p><p>«I’m Duusu, the kwami of emotion. Oh no, I shouldn’t have said that, Mari will kill me. No, I am immortal. But maybe…»</p><p>Suyin caressed the blue creature’s cheek. «Marinette isn’t here, she’s in an hospital very far away.»</p><p>«She’s hurt. Oh no Marinette.» The kwami started crying.</p><p>«Calm down, you don’t have to worry about it, she’s getting better.»</p><p>Duusu immediately stopped crying and rolled in the air. «Yu-hu, Marinette is safe.»</p><p>«Moody» commented Suyin under her breath, before continuing with her lecture. «Do you mind staying with me until Mari comes home?»</p><p>«Yes! I miss having an owner so much.»</p><p>«Well, then. I am Suyin, but you can call me Sabine.» She caressed the small goddess head.</p><p>«Hello Suyin, you have to know I can give you the power of emotion! All you’ll have to do is say “Duusu, spread my feathers”.»</p><p>Sabine nodded, then put the miraculous on, but didn’t transform. She didn’t need to right now.</p>
<hr/><p>About half an hour had passed, when finally a strong negative emotion emerged. A man who had just been publicly rejected after his marriage proposal wanted power to make his Julie stay with him forever. Lila transferred her power to the butterfly, who became black and purple.</p><p>«Take him, farfallina, and make me proud.»</p><p>The small butterfly landed on the man’s ring in a velvet box, and a purple mark appeared on his face. «Romeo, you’ve been rejected by the woman you loved even though you were soulmates. I, Swallowtail, will give you the power to make all soulmates indivisible, but you have to bring me any of the miraculouses from their holders. Do you accept?»</p><p>«I accept, Swallowtail. Romeo and his Juliette will be together forever.» Purple mist surrounded him, and suddenly he was dressed like a medieval king, with a crown and a red velvet cape. In his left hand there was a golden scepter, that had a red ribbon tied around the white diamond at the end.</p><p>Many people around screamed and left, just a couple remained to film the scene, and the akumatized man’s girlfriend who was trying to persuade him to fight against the akuma.</p><p>«Charles, stop please. You know I love you and we’ll stay together forever, but I’m not ready for a marriage yet.»</p><p>The man grabbed her wrist, bringing her way too close to his body. «Julie, mon amour, I’m not Charles anymore, my name’s Romeo. We’ll be inseparable for the rest of our lives.» He pointed his rod to the woman’s chest, shooting some sort of pink laser, and a rambler red rose made its way up from the woman’s wrist to Romeo’s. A couple of seconds later, the woman tumbled down on the floor, unconscious. The akumatized man scooped her up and put her on top of the heart of roses he had bought for his proposal. «I’ll meet you later.» He separated their bleeding arms, leaving a small ring on the woman’s finger.</p>
<hr/><p>Alya was checking her Ladyblog and texting with her online best friends, when a video showed up on her feed: akuma attack. In that exact moment, an akuma alarm on her phone. She quickly posted on the blog a small alert, then she looked at her kwami.</p><p>«Trixx, let’s chat!»</p><p>She transformed, but instead of her old costume, she was now dressed with an orange and white body, with long sleeves and a pair of knee-high, white boots. On her back, there was now a slim and long cape that resembled a fox tail. Her mask looked the same, but her hair were now tied in a low ponytail, with her usual white tips that contrasted on light brown hair, with her usual fox ears adorning the front of her head. She turned around, looking at herself in the mirror.</p><p>«Well, that’s a makeover to say the least. Hawkmoth, here we come.»</p>
<hr/><p>Both Nino and Alix were at the skating park in that moment. Nino had just finished a couple of skateboard tricks and was now sitting on a near bench, while Alix was circling around with her roller skates. He felt his phone vibrating, as well as Alix’s. As he got it in his hand, he saw the akuma alert.</p><p>«Alix, we have to go.»</p><p>The pink haired girl stopped her race. «What happened?»</p><p>Nino looked around, noticing there wasn’t anyone else. «Akuma attack.»</p><p>Alix nodded, and the two hid behind a nearby building. Alix was the first to transform: her body was white and light blue, and ended on her legs like a pair of tight shorts. She had a pair of white knee-high socks, and light blue basketball shoes. On her head, there were two long bunny ears coming out of her fluffy, now light pink hair. On her face, there was a white mask. To complete the bunny look, there was a soft, round cotton puff at the lowest point of her back. She carried her umbrella with her, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, trying to visualize the akuma.</p><p>«Wayzz, shell on!»</p><p>Carapace had a pair of loose, maroon pants that covered his lower half. On top of that, he had a green shirt with a yellow design that followed his lower abdomen’s curves, like a protective corset. He had his usual green hood that laid behind his neck, on his head he had a yellow band that circled his head, and a green mask. He had his shell behind his back and a pair of green sneakers to complete the look. He put his hood over his head and followed Bunnyx.</p>
<hr/><p>Chloé was at home alone, making up some space in her wardrobe, when she heard her phone vibrating. Pollen arrived to her in a second.</p><p>«My queen, your help is needed.»</p><p>Chloé furrowed her eyebrows. «Good. Pollen, buzz on!»</p><p>A yellow and black striped mini dress with long sleeves appeared on her body, as well as a pair of white leggings and yellow ankle boots. Her ankles and wrists were now surrounded by yellow furry bracelets, as well as her neck, who had a soft fur scar. Her hair fell free on her back, kept together by a small black braid. Her miraculous now looked like a small tiara on the front of her head, and she wore a yellow mask. From her shoulders came out a light blue cape, who was divided in half, to simulate a pair of bee wings. She eyed the small miracle box that contained her miraculous and a small note.</p><p>“I gave you all a bit of a makeover, so it should be safe for the miraculous holders that already have been involved to be with us again. -LB”</p><p>«Thank you, Marinette.» Queen Bee launched herself out of the window.</p>
<hr/><p>«What do we have here, Cesaire?» asked Queen Bee, once she got on the roof the other three heroes were onto.</p><p>«Don’t call me by my real surname! I’m Rena Rouge for a reason. Anyways, the akuma calls himself Romeo and attacks couples by tying their arms together with rambler roses, that leave the victims unconscious if detached from one another.» Rena was using her flute to try to contact Ladybug, failing.</p><p>Carapace looked to the confused akumatized person. «Not all couples though, just soulmates, Rena.» In his voice there was some bitterness, and the bee themed hero noticed it, shooting him a questioning glare.</p><p>«Anyways, we should try not to be hit, who knows if it doesn’t affect people without connecting their arms together. Also, if it hurts any of us it could be more difficult now that Ladybug is unavailable.» Bunnyx crossed her arms.</p><p>«Wait, what does it mean that Ladybug is unavailable?» asked Rena Rouge.</p><p>Queen Bee didn’t move her eyes from the villain. «That she won’t be here. Neither will be Chat Noir, for that matter. Why else would they recruit all of us then?»</p><p>«She’s right, Rena» said Carapace, shifting to a better position. «Anyways, we should do something, overanalyzing won’t bring us anywhere, it will just hurt more people.»</p><p>The four heroes landed in front of the man, who grinned evilly. «There you are. Come on, hand me your miraculous, so I can make every soulmate happy without distraction.»</p><p>«I don’t think so, monsieur, we won’t give up without a fight.» Alix rotated her umbrella.</p><p>The four heroes had surrounded him from four different angles, making it impossible for him to hit two of them at the same time. The visibly distressed man jumped on top of a nearby car, then landed on the nearest roof. He run away, and the four heroes followed him.</p><p>As he arrived under the Tour Eiffel, Rena, Queen Bee and Carapace landed in front of him, while Bunnyx was waiting behind one of the legs of the tower, to attack him when the other three had put him down. She had to find out where the butterfly miraculous could’ve been.</p><p>Rena Rouge theorized it could have been in the crown. So, the three walked in front of him, Chloé kept the distance between the two ex-lovers. Romeo kept backing off, until he noticed something. He smiled triumphantly, and shoot a pink ray from his scepter directed to Queen Bee’s chest. Nino noticed this, and shielded her with his shell. Then, he raised it to call his special move, but in that moment the pink laser hit him. He fell on the ground, and soon realized two things: something had tumbled down with him and his left arm was hurting and bleeding. Rena Rouge stopped running: Queen Bee and Carapace were laying on the ground, their arms connected by a red rose stem. Both the teens were too busy hurting to even realize the gravity of the situation, but Rena felt a bit of betrayal from the view.</p><p>«Fuck» exclaimed Queen Bee, her eyes teary, «Lahiffe, can you get up?»</p><p>«Don’t call me like that, Bee, we have hero names for a reason.» He took her free wrist and the two got up.</p><p>«Shit.» Alix had seen the scene, and now was running past her friends. Romeo had escaped.</p><p>A now detransformed Lila in her room shook her head. «What did I tell you, Romeo. You have to bring me a miraculous.»</p><p>«Yes, Swallowtail.»</p><p>Bunnyx, who had followed him, tried to hit him with her umbrella. He blocked the hit with his rod. The two battled for a couple of minutes, until she finally put him down. His back hit the wall of a near building, and he collapsed on the ground. She got closer to him, but he immediately opened his eyes and grinned, then he started shooting pink lasers from his rod. She did a backflip and landed a couple of meters back, and opened her umbrella, using it as a shield. He recharged and she watched behind her back: a small group of civilians, coming out of the near cinema, was surrounding the scene. Then, two people got her attention: Kim and Max. The latter run back in the building as soon as he saw the scene, while Kim wasn’t paying attention, too concentrated on his own business.</p><p>Bunnyx was visibly way too worried for him, and Romeo noticed it too. He shot one of his laser rays in his directions, and a second before it could hit him, Bunnyx was defending him by rotating her umbrella in front of them. He finally put away the phone, just to notice the bunny girl protecting him. “Cute” was the only thing he could think of, becoming visibly red at the thought of that girl being Alix. Rena Rouge reached them and was now trying her best, dueling against the man. Bunnyx bended over, putting her hands on her knees, then she put her umbrella on her back.</p><p>«Is everything ok?» she asked, a small smile on her lips.</p><p>If possible, the boy got even redder. «Y-yes.»</p><p>«Good, then hide!»</p><p>The boy covered his tomato face as better as he could and hid in the cinema.</p><p>«We need a plan.»</p><p>The four superheroes were now talking on top of a building. The tension was palpable, and Bunnyx tried to come up with a plan.</p><p>«Ok, so Rena, you’ll make a couple appear behind us. As he targets them, Queen Bee uses her power to make him stay still, and then I’ll try taking the rod while Carapace shields us from eventual rays. Everything clear?»</p><p>«Isn’t the akuma on the crown?» asked Rena, and Bunnyx shook her head.</p><p>«It’s unlikely, I hit it before and he hasn’t even tried to protect it. It’s more likely it is in the most hard to touch place, therefore the rode.» Alix was about to go, when Nino caught her arm.</p><p>«Actually, there’s a problem. How can I block his rays if I’m… well… stuck with Queen Bee?»</p><p>«And how can I sting him if my good arm is stuck here?» Both the joined teens blushed and looked away from one another.</p><p>«We have seen that removing the thorns makes the hurt people fall asleep. What do we do now, Bun?» Rena was trying her best to keep her head straight and not get overwhelmed by jealousy.</p><p>«That may be a problem…»</p>
<hr/><p>Sabine had seen the latest news. Another villain attack. Her daughter couldn’t be here and it was probably going to be a complete disaster. But then, she remembered that she could help somehow.</p><p>«Hey, Duusu, do you think I can do something to help them?»</p><p>The blue kwami nodded. «Let’s help them!»</p><p>She hid in Marinette’s empty room. «Duusu, spread my feathers!»</p><p>Suddenly, she was in a feathered blue dress, with a long train behind her, that left her lower legs open. It had an heart shaped neckline, and long blue sleeves that ended with a piece of cloth on her hands, attached to her middle fingers. On her face there was a golden venetian mask with a blue feather, and her hair was tied up in a bun.</p><p>As she looked around, she needed to find an object and some way to help the young heroes. The only thing left in the girl’s room was a small, squirrel looking plush. She smiled. She took a feather from her fan, and blew on it. It landed on the small object, and a small squirrel appeared in its place.</p><p>«Hey, little one, how can you help me?»</p><p>The squirrel raised its head. «I don’t know, master. What’s your name?»</p><p>Sabine was a bit shocked, but looked at the squirrel. «I’m… Paonne.»</p><p>«Good, I’m Gland, why did you create me?»</p><p>Paonne looked out of the window. «I need to help the heroes, but I don’t know how. Especially since you’re here and they’re far away.»</p><p>The squirrel got on his two back legs. «No problem.» The small animal teleported on the woman’s hands.</p><p>«Wow, then. Help me then you can go and do what you want.»</p><p>«As you wish.»</p>
<hr/><p>«Dammit, can he take a pause for fuck’s sake?» said Rena Rouge, blocking another attack with her flute.</p><p>The squirrel appeared in front of Queen Bee and Carapace, who were sitting back against back behind a wall. «Need help?»</p><p>Both teens jumped. Chloé exclaimed: «What the fuck? Do these roses have allucinations as side effect or is a squirrel really talking to me?»</p><p>«No, Paonne sent me there, I want to help you. Just stay still.»</p><p>Both the teens were too shocked to move anyway. The squirrel jumped on their joined arms and started biting on the vines. A couple of minutes later, the two still had their wrists covered in roses stems, but were now detached from one another.</p><p>«My job here is done.» Gland disappeared.</p><p>The teens exchanged a quick glance, before launching themselves in the battle. Carapace now stood in front of Rena, protecting her with his shell. He called his shelter and a doom appeared over their heads. Alya then used her mirage to distract the man, by showing a couple on the road behind the villain. The illusions screamed and Romeo turned to look at the scene. Queen Bee then used her venom to block the man in a stiff position and Alix broke his staff in half. A black butterfly came out of the rod, and started to fly away, when Bunnyx threw the remaining rod in her direction, killing the small insect. Rena Rouge got closer to the butterfly and squashing her with her foot.</p><p>«Good job guys.» The teens bumped their fists, before going home for the rest of their day.</p>
<hr/><p>Lila laid in her room, she had been detransformed for a while now. As she looked at the brooch on her chest she smiled. It really wasn’t bad despite it being the first time.</p><p>«I’ll wait, Ladybug and Chat Noir. You can send me all your allies, it won't matter. One day, the miraculouses will all be mine.»</p>
<hr/><p>When the next day both Nino and Chloé showed up with bandaged arms and refused to sit together, Kim strangely didn’t make fun of them. Maybe because he was too busy trying not to blush, especially since he was sitting directly behind a certain pink haired girl. And maybe the same pink-haired girl was subtly blushing too. And strangely enough, if a squirrel started speaking in the middle of a Parisian park, there wouldn't be anyone that surprised: anything was possible in the city of love, quite literally.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I suck at writing action, we been knew. Anyways, if you don't like the couples it can still be seen as a purely coincidental/accidental thing and you can interpretate it like you want, don't worry. I'm still not sure if I should or not make them canon, buuuut I think it will be one of those secondary, minor things like after this they will just be mentioned as a couple, I won't make chapters about them dating or so. But, especially for the Chloé/Nino thing is a great charachter development so I think it will be seen in the future.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Visits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The siblings visit Marinette, Sabine and Jeremie prepare themselves for their Christmas.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am submerged by all the work I've been procrastinating. I'm sorry for being a bit late, I couldn't concentrate that much. It won't happen again I promise. Also, I am loosing a bit the inspiration, because all I can think about is Marinette waking up, but I don't want to make it happen too soon. As always, enjoy your reading:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first sibling to visit Marinette was Tim. He went to her room to ask to the nurses if she could be visited by anybody, and they all agreed that it was safe for them to visit the girl: she was getting better every day.</p><p>When he first entered the room, she laid there lifeless. He looked at her: she looked very pretty, her jet black hair looked a lot like Bruce’s, her eyes had long, beautiful lashes and her lips were red and heart shaped. But when he noticed her body, something in him broke: she looked so thin, like she had been starving, he could’ve probably circled her waist with a hand. Her free leg was full of bruises, that couldn’t possibly match with the way she had fallen, and many scars of different length: cuts covered her skin, and noticing the way most of those were almost not visible anymore, it was plausible to think they were even older than a month. On her arms and even on her shoulders there was an incredible amount of bruises and scars. On her waist there was even a stitched wound, and judging the pattern used, it was likely that she had done it herself. How had the nurses not noticed this? And if they did, why didn’t they report this?</p><p>But most importantly: how the hell did she even arrive at that point?</p><p>One thing was certain, and it was that this girl was hiding something. She had an eating disorder, that was almost certain: she wasn’t skin and bones, but it got really close. But the way she got all those scars, she either was bullied, a criminal, or involved in fighting of some kind. There was a fourth option, but he chose not to take that into consideration. Still, she looked so skinny and frail, the latter two options didn’t look convincing.</p><p>Tim had a sad smile on his face as he got closer to the girl. He gently moved a stray strand of hair from her face.</p><p>«Hello, Marinette. It’s an honor to finally meet you. I’m Timothy, but you can call me Tim. I’m your brother, and I’m so sorry I haven’t been here before. In the next days all of our family will pay you a visit. We’ve all been very impatient to meet you.»</p><p> </p><p>«Voice! Voice!» Marinette came out of the water, wringing her wet hair, «I have another brother!»</p><p>The Voice smiled. «Oh, that’s a good thing. What did he say to you?»</p><p>«His name is Timothy, and he has told me that the rest of the family is going to meet me soon. This means… I have other siblings, and maybe I’ll finally be able to meet my father, my biological one!» She smiled so brightly, even the Voice, whose body was made of light, was blinded by it.</p><p>«For real?»</p><p>«Mh-mh.» Marinette nodded. «At least, I hope so.»</p><p> </p><p>The following day, Jason entered the room, placing a big bouquet of flowers near the window. He saw one of the mobile stools, and with a weak kick, he moved it near the bed.</p><p>He looked around, to see if anyone was there, then he started tickling the girl under her arms. The comatose girl moved a bit both her head and the legs, now free from casts, as well as her arms and hands.</p><p>«Well, welcome to the technically dead siblings club, Mari. I’m Jason, ‘s nice to meet you. Our old hag didn’t want us to meet you for some reasons. Dick, you’ve met him, has scolded him for good. Damn, he really wasn’t joking when he said you were pretty as fuck. Maybe you have his eyes too. No wonder you’re so popular.»</p><p>The unconscious girl’s cheeks reddened and Jason smiled genuinely.</p><p>«Oh, so we’re shy Marinette? I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll make sure to give you a bunch of roses next time I see you, princess.»</p><p> </p><p>«What happened this time?» asked the Voice, before noticing her face. «Why are you so red?»</p><p>«It’s not. My fault. If compliments. Make me do this.» She gestured vaguely at her tomato-red cheeks.</p><p>The Voice giggled, amused.</p><p>«It’s not funny.»</p><p>«Oh, I think it is. People should give you compliments way more often, especially if this is the result» joked the Voice.</p><p>Marinette let out an exasperated snort.</p><p> </p><p>Cassandra wasn’t sure if she wanted to come to visit Marinette. Unlike all her brothers, she lacked one basic ability that made it almost impossible for her to do the same things three of the Wayne siblings had already done: she didn’t know how to speak. She couldn’t, for the love of God, tell full complete sentences. She felt much better when reading other people’s body language, than talking, listening other talk, reading or anything involving words for that matter. That was why she hesitated, letting most of her brothers go first. The others told her the petite girl had reacted to their words, with physical reactions. But what could she do? Then she decided: if the girl didn’t hear her, she wouldn’t even know she had been there. She would just come into the room, see what the girl looked like in real life, maybe examinate her a bit, then continue with her life. Simple as that.</p><p>She didn’t think that a laying, motionless body could make her feel so safe, at home.</p><p>The girl looked like an angel, her lips slightly upturned, her only presence made the room feel lighter, even if it had been turned in an hospital room. How she could do this, Cassandra didn’t have a clue.</p><p>She got near the girl, placing a hand near her body. The warmness pervaded her.</p><p>She gathered all the courage in her body. «My name… Cassandra. I’m sister.»</p><p>Unfortunately, Marinette didn’t move.</p><p>Cassandra looked at her hands. «Sorry. Can’t speak good.»</p><p>Then, something happened. As wanting to reassure her, Marinette started caressing the young woman’s hand.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t worry Cassandra, I’m not here to judge you. You sound like such an awesome person, I hope I’ll be able to tell this to you soon.”</p><p>She felt something heavy and wet on her hands. A head, an hairy one, and tears. Marinette wanted to cry too.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I wish I could comfort you. But I’m just a lifeless body.”</p><p> </p><p>As a miracle, the comatose girl started crying. Silently, but tearing up nonetheless.</p><p>«Sorry» she murmured, and Cassandra flinched.</p><p>For the following days, nobody talked about anything else: the doctors confirmed that the girl was still sound asleep. But everybody agreed: that girl was magical someway.</p><p> </p><p>Three days later, it was Damien’s turn. He had finally thrown away all the ego he had left, and had asked Dick to follow him in their sister’s room. Not that he wanted to see her that much or anything (even though he was being eaten up by the curiosity, but he would’ve never admitted it).</p><p>Dick brought him to the room, a hand on his shoulder. As Damien entered the room, he didn't know what to do. Should he try to check on her? Did he need to be all cheesy and caress her? Maybe hold her hand? He didn't feel like that. After a while, Damien finally gathered the courage to look at his sister: she almost looked like a spat copy of his father.</p><p>His instincts kicked in: she was going to ruin everything. Nobody would ever pay attention to him again, Bruce would prefer her over him anytime, and in a second all he had would be hers, and he would be abandoned and left alone. His father was right: he was envious of her, almost jealous. Why did she have to show up? Why couldn't she just stay in the shadow forever? Why couldn't she just have never been born?</p><p>Dick ruffled his hair.</p><p>«Calm down, you troublemaker. You're turning red from rage. You don't have to worry about her: she's your sibling, just like Cassandra and I are. She doesn't have bad intentions, she's just hurt.»</p><p>Damien tried his best not to look too annoyed. Richard gave him a push, making him get near the girl. He placed the small boy's hand in hers, and leaned against the nearest wall.</p><p>«Hey Marinette, I'm Dick. The one holding your hand is your last little brother, Damien. He's a bit of a dumbass hothead, but don't tell dad I said that.» He snickered.</p><p> </p><p>"Damien... looks like a Jeremie 2.0. How cute. Little demon, I can't wait to meet you."</p><p> </p><p>The girl giggled too. «Damien... Cute.» The girl turned her head, as to deeply fall asleep on her pillow.</p><p>Dick's snicker turned into a full, heartfelt laughter the moment the girl held the boy's hand tightly, making him look like a tomato.</p><p>Well, still a big no for Damien, but maybe having another sister was not as bad as he thought it was.</p><hr/><p>«You’ve got everything, right?» Suyin checked her son’s luggage.</p><p>«Come on mooom, I’m not five anymore. I’m just going to grandma’s house for Christmas, I don’t need to bring the whole house. You’re the one who’ll be travelling to freaking America.» </p><p>She booped his nose. «Yeah, but I’m an adult, I can take care of myself. You will have to behave, and make sure to do your homework, or I’ll eat you whole when I get home.»</p><p> «No you can’t!»</p><p>«And who says that I can’t?»</p><p>«The laws! Also I still have to decorate my new room, and you would never ever kill me before letting me finish, right?»</p><p>Sabine surrendered. «Ok, you’re right. But still, behave well and do your homework. I’ll bring Santa’s gifts when I come back, and if your nana said you haven’t been well behaved, you won’t see them until February. You understand?»</p><p>Jeremie put on his coat. «Yes mom, now hurry up, or you’ll be late to your flight.»</p><p>Sabine closed their apartment door. Baggage in hand, mother and son came down and entered her old car. Gina Dupain had recently came back home, after her last-minute, three months long journey to the Amazon rainforest, and had finally returned to her Parisian life, just in time for Christmas. She had accepted gladly to take Jeremie with him for some time, especially since she always had a soft spot for both him and Sabine. Half an hour after, they reached the Senior Dupain bakery.</p><p>Roland was still working, and he also wouldn’t be too happy to see her. He was still a very traditionalist man, he didn’t think that divorce was a good thing, especially since he never approved of their relationship to begin with. So, to not disturb him, Suyin and Jeremie entered the old couple’s house from the back door.</p><p>Gina Dupain welcomed her grandson with open arms. She greeted with enthusiasm even her ex daughter-in-law. She had always thought that women were made to thrive alone, without men interfering with their lives. Now that she knew that Sabine wanted to follow her passions, she could be nothing but supportive. She really loved that woman with her whole heart.</p><p>«Hey, Jemie! You decided to join us this year. Finally you’re big enough to spend some time with your nonna. This is also Claire’s first year.» She turned to Sabine. «Usually Marinette, Eloise and Mathieu watched movies together, it was a nightmare trying to put them to sleep.»</p><p>«I can believe it, she already goes to sleep at late night when she’s alone, I can’t imagine when she’s with friends.»</p><p>Both woman laughed.</p><p>«Are my cousins already there?» asked Jeremie, hopeful.</p><p>«Ah-ah. They’re coming Monday. You can resist two days with your nonna, right?»</p><p>Jeremie shrugged, and placed his bags in his temporary room.</p><p>«It won’t be too much trouble, right?»</p><p>«Don’t worry darling, I would be babysitting anyway. With Francois’ children, I’m never calm on the holidays, but I don’t complain. I always need a bit of glee in my life. And nothing brings me joy mire than a group of children.»  Gina caressed the other woman’s shoulder.</p><p>«Jeremie! I have to go» Sabine screamed, and the boy came running.</p><p>He hugged his mother. «I love you mom.»</p><p>«I love you too. Don’t turn your grandma crazy while I’m not here.»</p><p>She got out of the house as the sun started setting. Her small luggage was on the back of her car.</p><p>Almost fifteen hours later, she was in New York. Time to see her daughter again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Parents</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sabine arrives to America, Bruce finally meets his daughter.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We're almost there, three more chapters to go :)<br/></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The mall was way too crowded for Sabine's liking. She had just bought a couple of Christmas gifts and needed to get back to the hotel for the night. Her boss was kind enough to pay for the whole travel, even though she would've worked on the 24<sup>th</sup> evening. Not that it mattered, she wouldn't do much productive anyway. At least, she had something to distract her from her thoughts. She had been to New York only once, yet she remembered the place like the palm of her hand. When she had worked there for one year, she had fallen in love with the place. As she came out from the place, she recognised one of her old colleagues carrying two big shopping bags.</p><p>«Dayane!»</p><p>«Sabine? What are you doing here?»</p><p>Sabine hugged the woman. «I have to work here and I’ll be passing Christmas in New Jersey.»</p><p>The brown haired woman asked: «Are you still in contact with Wayne? I’ve seen that he got married with another woman, so I supposed you two didn’t talk anymore.»</p><p>«It’s… well… complicated. I’m not in Gotham for him, though. It’s about my daughter. She’s here now.»</p><p>Dayane nodded. «Oh, so you’ve became a mom too. My little demons have just started elementary school this year, it will be horrible, let me say.»</p><p>«Well, it surely has been. My daughter will go to high school next year and my son is in his second to last year of elementary school. It’s been quite a wild ride.»</p><p>Dayane furrowed her eyebrows. «Wait, does that mean that…»</p><p>Suyin interrupted her. «It’s been a pleasure, Dayane, but I must go now. We’ll see at the concert anyway.»</p><p>Before the other woman could speak, she got lost in the crowd. She had almost let her biggest secret slip away, and now she was almost lost. She clearly remembered another entrance, so where was she?</p><p>A black limousine stopped by. «Madame Cheng!» The voice was high-pitched but masculine, it was probably a teenager.</p><p>Adrien stepped out of the car. Sabine was just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.</p><p>«Adrien! What are you doing here in New York?»</p><p>The blonde boy looked at her with glowing eyes. «I’m having a fashion show on the 23<sup>rd</sup> of December, I’m more surprised to see you around, especially with all the stuff going on right now.»</p><p>«I’m here for work, and for Marinette.»</p><p>Adrien’s face reddened, but got sadder at the same time. She couldn’t know, but he had understood everything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>After he came back to the hotel from his visit to Aeon and Jesse's house, he retained his tears, trying his hardest not to cry. When he finally started crying, he couldn't stop.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Plagg, I can’t believe it. Marinette is such a kind, sweet girl, she’s one of the most beautiful I have ever known. How is it possible that the worst things always happen to the best people? First Ladybug, then Marin- wait.» An idea struck him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Plagg panicked a bit. «Hold on. How does Ladybug fit in all of this? We know she isn’t exactly the luckiest person as her civilian self, neither is Marinette» he paused, realizing what he just said. Then he murmured: «Fuck.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Exactly! That’s what I mean. The clues all lead to her. I mean, how can two people who are both that unlucky have the same problems at the same time? Also why wouldn’t anybody tell me, especially Alix? Because she was scared, scared I was going to find out. How did I not realize this sooner? They are literally the same. Also, Marinette has been so busy later, and now I understand why she couldn’t come to New York with me, or why Aeon wanted us to be together, if we are Ladybug and Chat Noir, the ying and yang, of course we are also soulmates.» Adrien looked in the distance, contemplating.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«That’s nonsense. How could Marinette be Ladybug? She’s clumsy and Ladybug’s perfect. They can’t be.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Plagg, stop. She already said she would’ve revealed her identity more than a week ago. It’s her. I can’t believe it is. I always had the love of my life under my nose and I’ve never realized it.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Still, there are two problems. One, the love of your life is in a coma, and two, she is already in love with someone else.»</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>«About Marinette… do you have some time to talk? I wanted to ask you a couple of things. And my father wanted to meet you.»</p>
<hr/><p>Bruce was submerging himself in his work, like every time he felt stressed about something. He had basically shut everybody out, and until at least dinner. There were left only less than six days to Christmas, and Wayne Enterprises were more active than ever. But that wasn’t the thing he was worried about.</p><p>«Sir, there’s something for you.» Alfred entered the room. He was the only one allowed in his office when Bruce was having one of his crisis.</p><p>«Leave it there, I’ll give it a look.»</p><p>Alfred hesitated. «Bruce… they’re all very worried about you. Please, come for dinner at least.» He left the room.</p><p>Bruce checked the documents he left. Paternity test.</p><p>“Shit, I forgot about this.”</p><p>He started reading. When Marinette had first arrived, just to be sure, he made her take a paternity test. And now, the results had come. He was anxious.</p><p>And he was the biological father. That didn’t make him feel any better, if anything it made him feel even worse. Because if she wasn’t, he would’ve just helped a random girl. But now, his only biological daughter was laying unconscious in one of the rooms in his mansion, and he never gathered up the courage to even visit her. He felt morally obligated to do so.</p><p>He ruffled his hair out of frustration. Sabine was going to be here for Christmas, and that made him feel even more anxious. How would he react? Should they talk? After what happened fifteen years ago, he didn’t feel like talking to her. Not because he hated her, he just didn’t know what to say. And how he would react to her presence.</p><p>The others had visited her, and brought him some information. He knew she was probably bullied or got injures in some way, and that she was really way too skinny for her own good. She probably was also a bit shy. They told him that her presence alone made everything feel lighter and that her voice was the cutest.</p><p>What was he scared of? The thing was, he wasn’t even sure. He had already 5 kids, even if not of his own. The real problem was that she already had an happy life without him and his problems. If he got too close and started getting attached, how could he let her go back where she had her whole life. What if she got involved in all his superhero troubles? What if she got hurt? What if she died because of him? All his other children were already strong enough to fight, and she looked so frail. He would never forgive himself if that happened.</p><p>And then, the woman he loved the most in his life. The only one that could make him feel safe and protected. Maybe because she had always been a lot more affectionate than every other woman he had been with, maybe she was more caring and less power-sick. What would he do if he saw her again? Would something change in him? Would he fall in love all over again? How would he hide his alter ego from her?</p><p>He breathed. In and out, in and out. He had all the time in the world to think about this, right?</p><p>Wrong. Dick entered the room, his hands deep in his pocket and his eyebrows furrowed.</p><p>«Stop with this bullshit, B. Why are you so anxious about her? Even Cass met her, why are you so hesitant about this? Come on, you don't have to go there and pick her up and change her diaper. I'm just asking you to fucking go see her, I'm not even asking you to talk to her. It's not that hard. Also, you're going to come to dinner with us, I don't fucking care if you still got work. You didn't bat an eye when you decided to adopt us,it should be no big deal to go and see your natural, biological daughter.»</p><p>Bruce got up. «You're right. I have to do this.»</p><p>He came down to the dining room. Everyone was there, as the food was being served. Aside from Jason and Damien's bickering, it was pretty quiet during the whole meal.</p><p>«So, about tonight's patrol?» asked Tim, before filling his mouth with a handful of peas.</p><p>«Today's patrol is dismissed, you can go around if you want, but I won't be coming. Feel free to keep the evening for yourself, or to go anyway if you want to.» Bruce finished his meal with composure.</p><p>Dick held his fork pointed towards the ceiling. «Well, Tim and I wanted to go looking around anyways, Steph also wants to try something. Jas, are you with us?»</p><p>Jason shook his head. «Sorry guys, but I have promised to Damien that I'll beat his ass on that new videogame.» Damien snickered.</p><p>Cass raised her hand. «I'm coming.»</p><p>«Great, Cass!» Tim pointed to her with his fork, smiling.</p><p>«If that's all, I'm leaving.» Bruce got up quickly. He left the room as all of his children watched him straniti: he usually was the last one to leave the room, always staying way longer than needed to think and calm himself down from every emotion before going to the Batcave and transform into Batman.</p><p>As he walked in the corridor, he contemplated all the options he had. Realising that his only good option was to get in and face his deepest fears, he gathered up the courage and pushed the door. He was no coward, he had to remind himself.</p><p>The room looked too silent for it to be welcoming. Just the acute heart rate monitor beeping and a soft breathing filling the almost empty room. There wasn't any nurse at this our in the evening, and for that he was grateful.</p><p>«Hi» he said, uncertain, «can I come in?»</p><p>"Of course you can come in, Bruce, what kind of fucking idiot would ask that to an unconscious person?" he thought, mentally face-palming.</p><p>He took one of the nearest stoves and put it next to the bed. The girl really looked like a stick, a stick full of bruises. But she was so beautiful, so pretty, he almost couldn't believe she was real. Maybe someone would come in and would wake him up. He caressed her cheek, and noticed the girl had a small smile on her face.</p><p>«Sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Also, you probably don't know who I am. My name's Bruce. I'm your father.»</p><p>The girl didn't move. He placed his back against the wall, still sitting on the stove, and straightened his arm next to the girl's body.</p><p>«You know, I was so scared to meet you. Because you're like a little miracle of your own. And I'm afraid I'll get too attached to you and you'll want to go back to Paris. I'm sure you will.» He didn't talk about his superhero identity, since there was a small yet existing possibility she could hear him and remember.</p><p>«You probably don't even hear me, I must look so stupid now. Damn, I'm such an idiot.»</p><p>For some seconds, nothing happened. Then, he felt warmness covering his hand. His daughter had placed her hand in his, and was holding tight. He immediately melted: a bright smile formed on his face, and he started talking, and talking, and talking. He told her a lot of things, how much he wanted to meet her, how he was too scared to even think about entering her room, how her mother was there to celebrate Christmas with her, how his family was just waiting for her to wake up. The soft beeping of the machine became soothing, comforting and almost relaxing, and Bruce fell asleep on the bed next to his daughter.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Outside help</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Agrestes promise to help Sabine with Marinette's father's identity, Stephanie discovers something.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am- strangely proud of this? Well, it's been a minute, but yesterday, the 7th, I started school again and I've already had a panick attac soooo. Oh yes, italian school system. So, maybe updates are going to be a bit slower, idk. We're almost there anyways. Hope you'll enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Sabine entered the enormous building, covered in marbles and golden, saying she felt a bit out of place was an understatement. It had been years since the last time she went in a similar place. And dressed with a simple plain pair of jeans and a short sleeved shirt, she felt even more inappropriate. But the blonde boy was leading her in what looked like a dining room, and she didn’t feel like taking back her words. As she entered the room, dozens of glass tables and modern chairs filled the room. It looked so minimal, she almost felt like she was in a modern art gallery.</p><p>«It’s here, madame Cheng.» Adrien pointed towards a nearby, arguably small table.</p><p>«Please, call me Suyin or Sabine.»</p><p>A waitress came near the two, and accompanied the two to the table, where two other people were already sitting. The waiter moved their chairs, to make them sit.</p><p>Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur were watching the two sit down.</p><p>«Good evening, Madame Cheng» said Nathalie, smiling a little.</p><p>«Don’t be so formal, call me Sabine. We’re still ex schoolmates and our little boy here is my daughter’s.»</p><p>Gabriel fixed his tie. «Well, I’m glad to be able to talk with you after so many years. May I ask, why are you here?»</p><p>«I am having a concert next week, also I am here for Marinette.»</p><p>Nathalie looked worried. «I am so sorry for what happened to your daughter.»</p><p>«Oh, don’t be. She’s getting better every day, the doctors told me she must have some kind of magic going on, because she’s healed way faster than needed.»</p><p>«One of my friends has told me she has had the accident on the day in which that new group of villains appeared, the one I’ve told you about fath- dad» Adrien said.</p><p>«Yes, the fourth of December. I still have no idea of how it happened though.»</p><p>Adrien lowered his head, suddenly getting red. «Marinette is such a sweet girl, she didn’t deserve this.»</p><p>The three adults looked at the boy, and Nathalie said, with a knowing smile: «Our Adrien has had a crush on your daughter for quite some time.»</p><p>«Mom! Ahem, I mean, Nathalie, that’s not true.»</p><p>«Believe me, he only talks about her when he’s at home. Especially since their trip to New York.» Continued Gabriel, noticing the way Nathalie was almost crying of joy from the way his son had called her.</p><p>«It’s not any better than my daughter: she’s been torturing us for more than a year with how her crush would never like her back. She even had his photos taped all around her room. She has an entire chest in her room filled with birthday presents for his birthday until he’s about 40.»</p><p>«What does this guy look like?» asked Adrien, convinced she was referring to Luka.</p><p>«Mhhh… I don’t know if I should say this… But he’s kind of tall, has blonde hair, green eyes and goes in her same class.» Sabine tried not to snicker.</p><p>The realization hit him. He hid his face with his arms, as the three adults laughed.</p><p>«If I’m not too indiscreet, can I ask you why you said you were here for Marinette?» asked Gabriel, as a waitress arrived and started pouring what looked like Champagne in their glasses.</p><p>«I’d love to tell you, I know I can trust you, especially regarding private and secret information, but as you know, walls have ears, it’s best not to tell this in such a crowded place. Let’s just say that her father’s identity is the main cause.» Sabine took the glass and drank. The fizzy beverage tickled her throat.</p><p>«So, I’d assume the father isn’t Dupain?» told the other woman.</p><p>«Wait, what does it mean? Marinette isn’t Tom’s daughter?» Adrien was utterly confused by the woman’s words. He had never heard his friend say anything of the sort, he always thought that Marinette was the baker’s daughter. But now, the reason her surname was Cheng and not Dupain was clear. He definitely hadn’t believed the story that Nino told him about her being born before their marriage. Even if she were born before they got married, she still could’ve gotten her father’s surname. But that meant that Nino could know everything. «Who knows about this?»</p><p>«It’s just a couple of friends of mine. Nadja Chamack, Haniya Lahiffe and Ylène Chien. Not even my mother knows, not even Marinette. Well, of course, my ex-husband knew.»</p><p>«Ex-husband?» asked Gabriel, confused. «I thought you had married only Thomas.»</p><p>«Exactly, I did. But recently, we had continuous discussions about my daughter, and we realized it was better if we just stopped being together.»</p><p>«I remember what I told you in high school: that man was no good. You deserve much better than him.» Gabriel was now dead serious.</p><p>Sabine smiled softly. «I know, I know, but without him I wouldn’t have my precious little Jemie, and that is worth everything.»</p><p>She looked around her once more. «And by the way, he helped me hide Marinette from indiscreet ears and eyes.»</p><p>Adrien looked around, uncomfortable. «Can I go back to my room?»</p><p>Gabriel nodded. «Of course, but take the food away with you. I don’t want you starving.»</p><p>«Ok, thanks dad.»</p><p>The boy left the room, and a waiter followed him with a tray.</p><p>«Sabine, stay with us for dinner. Then we’ll talk about your daughter.»</p><p> </p><p>«So, Suyin, we can help you if you let us know. Who’s Marinette’s father?» Adrien was now with all the adults in Gabriel’s suite.</p><p>«It’s kind of overwhelming. God, I… really don’t know if I should tell you. What if something happens or there’s someone listening.»</p><p>«Listen, Sabine.» Nathalie got near the other woman and took her hands, which was a strange behavior for the usually cold assistant. Sabine was shocked. «I know you’re scared, but believe me, if her father is so powerful and well known, he’ll protect her, don’t you think? Also, keeping something a secret can be more dangerous and hurtful than just letting somebody know. Marinette is old enough to understand the delicacy of a topic like this, I doubt, kind and smart as she is, that she would like you be honest, at least with her. You don’t have to trust us, I know, but at least, trust yourself and Marinette. She can handle this.»</p><p>«Nathalie! I didn’t know you had this in you.» Adrien smiled brightly.</p><p>«The last three months of therapy have helped.»</p><p>Sabine breathed in heavily. Telling it to somebody so affluent could help. And, even if they hadn’t talked for years, Sabine and Gabriel still cared deeply for one another. «It’s… Bruce Wayne.»</p><p>Luckily neither of them was drinking, or there would be three people choking on their drinks. That was… kind of unexpected.</p><p>If it was anybody else, Gabriel would’ve simply told her to not make a big deal out of it, because even despite the fact that it was true, they would probably never accept to see the girl. But Wayne, he looked like a man that would’ve been ecstatic about having a child. But also, it was a big secret to hide, he couldn’t understand how she managed to hide it for so long, knowing the wealth and popularity of the man in question. «How… how have you managed to keep this a secret for fourteen years?»</p><p>«I’ve told that to just the right people. Three or four of my friends, my now ex-husband and nobody else. Well, my son, but he doesn’t count, he’s just a kid. I never told anyone else. Not even my mother.»</p><p>«How are you so sure they have never told anybody?» asked Adrien.</p><p>«Who would believe it, especially if it isn’t somebody that knew that, even if I wasn’t that famous, I was still well known. But, thankfully, nobody has understood yet, except for the ones to which I said this of course.»</p><p>Gabriel turned towards his assistant and lover. «Don’t we have a party at the Wayne’s mansion on Christmas?»</p><p>The woman nodded.</p><p>Adrien’s face lit up. «Wait a second… you said that Marinette is in America, right? Does that mean…»</p><p>«Yes, Marinette is in the Waynes’ mansion. I still have to visit her, of course, I have arrived yesterday evening.» Sabine looked at her phone. «I am really sorry, but it’s getting late. Tomorrow I have to go to work. Thank you all, guys, really.»</p><p>The woman left the room, as the sun became barely visible from the horizon. Adrien was looking outside the window, lost deep in thoughts.</p><p>«Is everything alright Adrien?» Gabriel and Nathalie got near the boy.</p><p>He smiled and nodded, still a bit dazed. «Yes, it’s just… I want to see her. She is my soulmate, she must be.»</p><p>«How can you be so sure about it?» Nathalie brushed the boy’s hair.</p><p>He pondered on the question, not wanting to possibly lie or say something Marinette wouldn’t like. «Trust me, I know what I’m saying.»</p><p>Gabriel smiled. «If you say so, I’ll believe you. And I approve, your relationship with miss Cheng would incredibly benefit the Gabriel brand.» Adrien made an angry expression and Nathalie started raising her eyebrow. «Just kidding, just kidding. Don’t get so defensive kid, I’ll support your relationship whatever it really is.»</p><p>Adrien hugged the other two. «I have to go back to my room, I have… someone to call.»</p><p>The boy run down the stairs. Nathalie sat down next to her lover. «She’s Ladybug» she murmured.</p><p>«She definitely is.» Gabriel still looked at the door that the blonde boy just closed. The two started laughing, and then kissed.</p>
<hr/><p>Nightwing and Red Robin were wandering around the city, carefully examining the streets below, looking for any kind of criminal activity. Strangely enough, during the last month and a half, things had been oddly calm, except for a couple of normal criminals and a case of international trafficking, which was mostly handled by the police. Jason liked to joke about this, usually telling them that “Christmas spirit must have made them good people”. Even if  everyone giggled, nobody believed it. Something seemed off about all of this, and Bruce hadn’t even reported anything unusual from his meeting with the League.</p><p>«Do you have an idea of what to gift to Cass this year?» asked Tim, as the two arrived on top of a building, the place where Stephanie told them she would meet them.</p><p>«Of course I do. I have already bought gifts for almost everybody, I think. Should I gift something to Alfred too?» Nightwing was crouching down, looking into the distance.</p><p>Tim answered: «I’m sure he’ll appreciate it. But please, can you tell me what you got her? I have literally no idea what to give her.»</p><p>Dick put on an almost offended face. «Oh, absolutely no. I know what you would do, the same thing you did for B’s birthday last year. You are so good with secrets but when it’s about gifts you are incapable. Also, you’re basically always with her, so much you’ll make Steph jealous. But at least you should have a vague idea of what she could like.»</p><p>«How could Steph be jealous? I mean, we broke up almost a year ago, we’re just friends.»</p><p>«Was that really the only thing you paid attention to?»</p><p>Spoiler arrived on top of the building. «Hey guys, what’s up?»</p><p>«Meh, nothing much, maybe our ol’ man has finally decided to pay a visit to his daughter but that’s it» Dick said, his gaze lost in the darkness that surrounded the city.</p><p>Tim questioned: «Why did you call us here tonight? Usually when you do this you’ve found some interesting news.»</p><p>Stephanie’s eyes almost lit up with excitement. «Well, they are interesting to say the least.» The two boys got closer to her. «Ok, so when Mariette-»</p><p>«Marinette» corrected Dick.</p><p>«Yes, sorry, Marinette got here, I started searching about Paris. Last year, Tim, you had found about some of the possible criminal organizations in Europe, some of which also included some suspect supervillains we never heard of before. And now, searching in some Parisians televisions, I’ve found out that there are many villains in Paris.»</p><p>«Ok and? We can’t leave Gotham to help them, shouldn’t this be the League’s problem?» Tim asked.</p><p>«Yes, well, but there’s one more thing to this. You see, reading this site, it’s called the Ladyblog, I’ve found out the existence of a group of superheroes that protect the city. The most powerful and popular ones should be these two.» Stephanie turned what looked like a phone in front of their faces. On the screen, there were two superheroes, a red dotted girl and a black leather boy. «Their names are Ladybug and Chat Noir, and are terribly untrained, somehow they managed to do some shit, but still, they look fifteen at most. That is something that the League or your father should check into.»</p><p>«Does this… does this mean…» started Dick, too focused on the whole story to form a cohesive sentence.</p><p>«Yes, it means exactly that. Paris is too dangerous, for Marinette’s safety she has to stay here.»</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>We're about to discover the full story of our (my) beloved Sabine, stay tuned.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Melodies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sabine's past and how she met her first lover.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There's still a small part of Sabine's story that will be told in the next chapter. Also, we'll se why this is being explained. Anyways, this is one of my favorite chapters so far, but I've written it terribly sooo.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <em>When Suyin was born, the sun was just starting to rise. Near the window of the hospital room, a small bird had started to sing. When her mother heard it, she decided her daughter</em>
  <em>’</em>
  <em>s name immediately: Suyin, plain and unadorned sound. When her father broke into the room with their son soon following, he saw the small newborn and cried.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Suyin was born in Shanghai, in a semi peaceful time, and grew up in her parent’s house for some years. Her father worked as an office worker, while her mother instead run the family martial arts school, and passed her time taking care of her two kids and teaching wushu to her first child. Their family lived happily most of the times. Even though Peizhi Xia wasn’t the most affectionate mother, she always took care of her children, and started teaching her martial arts too. Peizhi was a good-looking woman, that met her husband when he had just ended university, and he immediately fell in love with her. When they decided to get married, she made him promise one thing: he had to stay in Shanghai with her, and raise their children so that one day, one of them or both would inherit the family business.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Hao Cheng was Suyin’s older brother. Even if he really cared about her, he was always too busy and incapable of showing love to her, they talked sometimes, but weren’t really close.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When she turned five, things started getting worse: the Chinese government started once again its only child propaganda, and even though Suyin wasn’t directly being accused, she still wasn’t safe. So, her father decided it would be better for her to leave China. Not even bothering telling to Hao or Peizhi, one night he took his daughter and left. Frederic Cheng had always lived in France, even though his father was Chinese. As father and daughter arrived in Paris, they started living in the family’s apartment, and the next year he started working as a high school literature teacher in a private institute, the same one that Sabine started attending.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sabine’s grandmother was also a teacher, but a music one. Living with her granddaughter, she caught her many times looking at her instruments or trying to play the piano. Mariette was very fond of Sabine, and immediately understood that the still six years old girl had potential. So, one day, while the small girl was not so secretly analyzing the woman’s cello.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Which one you like the most, Sabine?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The black haired girl flinched, then she realized what the woman had said. As red as a tomato, she answered: «That one.» She pointed to one of the corners.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mariette took up the instrument. «This, my dear, is a violin. You play it like this.» She placed the instrument correctly under her chin, and started playing a few notes of one of Beethoven’s sonatas.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The little girl’s gray eyes opened wide. «That is awesome, nana!»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Great, my sweetie. Your French is already very good, maybe we could even use some time to study how to play this, instead of always studying just French when we’re home. Would you like it?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Oui, I’m so excited.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And just like that, Sabine first started having violin lessons once a week. That turned to twice a week, three, four, five times, and before anyone could notice she was almost addicted to playing the violin. Every free second of her day was occupied by trying the latest compositions, and she was getting so good, she casually started playing with her grandmother publicly during the woman’s performances in restaurants and private parties: their duets became well known when Sabine was just eleven. At thirteen she could almost perfectly play piano, cello and flute, as well as being a child prodigy at playing the violin. That same year, her mentor, her grandmother died, and she abandoned music for a bit.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When she started high school, she was known by everyone as Sabine: the nickname her grandparents gave her to make it simpler to call her, was now the way everyone referred to her. Not that she complained, Sabine was a great name, and made her feel at home in a way her Chinese name, and Chinese house never did. She ended up being in a very privileged, rich and famous class, which initially made her feel a bit uncomfortable: after all, she was the daughter of a martial art teacher and a philosophy teacher. Nothing too fancy or prestigious. Gabriel Agreste was her first seatmate: he was the only son of the owner of the Agreste textile company, a really wealthy company, and he had already participated numerous times to fashion contests, winning important competitions. André Bourgeois, who always had a gigantic crush on Audrey Chiffon, a girl who was one year younger than them and a childhood friend of Gabriel. He was the son of an important politician and a lawyer, both pushing him towards a career in the administration or politics department. </em>
  <em>Dominique and Camille Gosselin, the two different twins, he was the troublemaker and she was the softest girl ever, but both were children of a singer and an art critic. </em>
  <em>Victor Dubois, one of Gabriel’s best friends, was the son of two of the most influential journalists of their decades. </em>
  <em>Nadja Chamack, the daughter of the Chamacks, both worked in show business, and had a past mixed with royal families and other great historical figures.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Other of her classmates were children of attorneys, important medics, university professors. She initially really felt overwhelmed. The only special quality she possessed was being a good violin player, maybe it was the fact that she was starting taking lessons at the conservatory when she should’ve waited until her graduation. But otherwise, no interesting family, no important past, nothing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sooner that expected, she realized that didn’t matter. She was always a kind soul, full of laughs and joy, and she was loved by everybody.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She didn’t have any boyfriends, even though many boys would’ve liked to have a chance with her: she always said her studies and practice took away too much time and she had to work hard to achieve her dream as soon as possible.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There was a certain boy that actually never stopped asking her out, despite her constant rejections. Thomas Dupain, known as Tom, who was the second son of the best baker in Paris. He was two years older than her, and even when he graduated he still tried to contact her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>As soon as she graduated, thanks to the courses she had taken while still in high school, she completed the first conservatory level at nineteen. </em>
  <em>Two weeks after her final exam, her father, who had always been very supportive of her passions, asked her to do a small solo performance for a party of one of his more important friends. She thought it was going to be something simple, for one of his Friends who maybe had a passion for music. So, she started practicing some of the most emotional and impressive songs she had found.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The day was a Friday, at the end of May. it was warm but still not summer. Her father, for the end of her studies, had gifted her two beautiful things: a new, white tinted violin with golden details and a beautiful, feet long, royal blue dress. That night, she would've performed with both. She expected to go to a small house, so when his father's car stopped next to an enormous Victorian palace, she felt a bit overwhelmed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«You said I was going to be for your friends, not for... well, whatever this is.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The man put his hands on his daughter's shoulder. «And it really is, it's just Hernè's party. Don't worry, Melody, you're going to be wonderful.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Thanks, dad.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>As the two got inside the building, they immediately entered in what looked like a ball room, with a small platform for the orchestra and the artists to perform.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Suyin trembled. It looked way bigger than usual. As soon as Hernè Lacour saw the duo, he run towards them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Good evening. It's good to finally see tonight's best artists. And a masterpiece too, if you consent.» The man said, smiling warmly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I am flattered, monsieur Lacour. And I'm thankful for the opportunity you gave me tonight.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The man winked. «Also, I am sorry if I convinced your father to lie to you and tell there wouldn't be many people, but I was convinced that if I told you this, you would never come. I'll call my son, so he can announce you to the guests and make place on the stage.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He left for a second, and then showed up followed by a thirty years old man who looked like a younger copy of him. «My son, Simon, Suyin» he introduced the two. «Now you can discuss for a second, tell him what you're going to play and everything.» The man left with Frederic by his side.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«So, Suyin, how can I introduce you? You have a list of your songs?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Yes, it's there.» She handed him a small piece of paper. The case got heavier and heavier every second.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«My father told me pretty much everything about you. But do you have an art name I can introduce you with?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She pondered for a second. That was something she never thought about before. Then, an idea. «Sabine. Sabine is my art name.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Ok then, follow me miss Sabine.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That night, Bruce was at the very same party. Herné was an influent person, and a family friend after all. His butler and father figure had accompanied him, even though he had just turned twenty. But, as in every other elite social occasion, he felt bored for the entire evening. That, until an angel showed up. The young woman, who looked eighteen at most, was pretty short, had Chinese facial features and light grey eyes. Her hair was tied up in a bun behind her head, and a small golden tiara adorned it. The most beautiful, dreamy dress hug her body, making her look ethereal. She held a white violin in her hands, and looked nervous.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«May I have your attention, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, we have the honor of having here the daughter of one of my father’s closest friends, Frederic Cheng. She’s studied music since she was a kid, and tonight has joined us in our gala. I present to you, Sabine.» The crowd clapped.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Most of the people turned back to their activities, and Sabine started playing. The intro was very simple and plain, but not even a minute later, the people were looking back at her. She was playing with her eyes closed, and the music was so emotional all the people were looking impressed at her, some women even shed a couple of tears. Sabine kept on playing for another fifteen minutes, which to Bruce felt like hours. The young woman had enchanted him, captured hi completely. He had never felt in love, and that was the closest thing to love he ever felt. As soon as the black haired woman finished her performance, the whole room applauded. She slowly got off the platform and a group of people surrounded her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I see something has caught your attention. Or maybe someone.» Alfred had a sly smile printed on his face. Bruce didn’t know how to answer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>About half an hour later, he had just ended a chat with the umpteenth group of people that told him that they were his parent’s friends and how proud they would be of him. He had thankfully slipped away, coming next to the buffet. He ate a tart, and noticed the violinist leaning against a column near him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Good evening, miss.» Bruce came next to her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Good evening to you too. I suppose you’re that famous Bruce Wayne, if I’m not mistaken.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«You aren’t, miss…?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Suyin Cheng, my pleasure. You can call me Sabine if you want to.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Well then, Sabine, I’ve heard you’re pretty young yet very skilled.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Yeah, I’m nineteen.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«So, we were born in the same year. Damn, I thought you were much younger.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«To be fair, I thought you were at least twenty-five. At least I have someone that can understand me. It’s my first time in a place like this, and the younger person I thought I’ve seen is like forty years older than me. And they probably could buy the entire building I live in and still have money left.» They laughed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The two chatted for a while, before a soft classical music started playing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«So, you want to dance?» asked Suyin, offering her hand.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«But… there’s no one dancing, we can’t occupy the entire place.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Who said we’re going to dance here?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Show me then, princess.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She took his hand, and led him to the outside garden that was accessible from the door next to them. She took off her white shoes and stepped into the wet grass. He turned his head, curious, then followed suit. The music was still loud even from outside, the chill air of the end of May tickled their skins and the stars watched over them, as in a romantic fairytale. They danced until midnight, talking about their lives. That night, two strangers became lovers, and their fates were bound to be united for the rest of their lives.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Light</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Marinette finally wakes up.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>THE TIME HAS COME. Anyways, now the spicy part of the story starts. I know I've published a chapter about nine hours ago but I am just so excited about this. I hope you enjoy :)</p><p>tw// slight mention of blood</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>After that night, Suyin started working in one of Paris most famous orchestras. She and Bruce had secretly started dating, and everything was going well. Until the day Frederic died. The doctors said it had been a stroke, and it was lethal even though her father was in his early fifties. She felt lost, and after the funeral, she immediately flew to the United States to be with her boyfriend. She had to be careful, as the press had always been a nightmare for the Wayne family. For precaution, she stood in New York for about nine months, meeting her boyfriend as frequently as possible. She loved him very much, and tried her best to assure him of this, not only because they were each other’s very first love, but also because he looked like he was attention starved, always on the verge of becoming an apathetic, workaholic men.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The day she went to live in his mansion, it was a February. She was very nervous, even though she had been to the place many times during the last months. That very same week, as the two laid in bed ready to sleep, Bruce got up.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Sorry, Sabine. I can’t hide this from you anymore.» He softly started caressing her long, black hair.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«What</em>
  <em>…</em>
  <em> Bruce, is everything alright love?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«No, it isn’t. I don’t want to keep secrets from you. But that means putting you in danger.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Hey, look at me. I love you, ok? The only thing I care about right now is your wellbeing, and for that I can accept a bit of scandal or paparazzi. Tell me what’s going on, please.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I am-» Bruce wanted to cry, and had to restrain himself from doing so, «I am Batman. The superhero that about two years ago has started running around Gotham city to protect its citizens, and to punish the criminals, just like the one that killed my parents.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sabine was shocked. She expected it, she definitely had considered the idea, but it was an entirely different thing from it being confirmed and in front of your eyes. Still, she reacted as positively as she could. «That’s</em>
  <em>…</em>
  <em> a good thing. I’m not scared about me, I’m scared about you. Because I don’t want anything bad happening to you.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He held her tight. «God, thank you so much. I love you more than anything.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I love you too, you’re my world.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The next month, photos of her in the mansion started going around and Bruce had to officialize the fact that he was in a relationship. He didn’t make her identity public, not to put her too much in the spotlight, especially since she was now working as a private violinist and composer. Many months passed in tranquility, his identity a secret to the world and everything fine. They seemed even closer than before. Until Sabine became 21. It was the end of November, and some smaller gossip magazine made an article about Sabine, and her relationship with the Wayne. She now had to face a pack of hungry journalist, wanting to have confirmations and know about her past. Soon, bad voices started going around. She didn’t care, but she couldn’t afford seeing him put under even more pressure. So, three months later, she left to go celebrating Chinese New Year with her family in Shanghai. When she arrived, she started thinking how she didn’t deserve him, he needed to be with somebody as famous as him, someone who could understand him and who would help his reputation and his cover for Batman. She wasn’t that woman. So, one day, when he called her to see how everything was going, she simply apologized. Then, he never heard anything about her ever again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It got worse. Because two days later, she started throwing up. She hadn’t menstruated in a while too. She went to the pharmacy and bought a pack of pregnancy tests: both came out positive. She packed up her things and flew to Paris. She called Nadja, and she immediately agreed: the woman would’ve hosted Sabine until the end of the pregnancy, providing for her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Six months later, at the end of July, Marinette was born. Sabine fell immediately in love with her: she was so grateful of not having put her up for adoption, especially since the abortion wasn’t even a possibility, since she found out about the pregnancy too late. She started working again at the theatre, putting up enough money to take care of her daughter and rent a small apartment.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Casually, one day, Tom and Sabine met again, and started liking each other. From there on, the story is known.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>“Mom… I’m- I’m so sorry.” Marinette started crying as she slowly opened her eyes. Why did the water show her this?</p><p>«What happened, Marinette?» asked the Voice, as the girl slowly took away her hand from the surface of the water.</p><p>«It has showed me… my parents, how they met. But how, I… don’t understand, I don’t know any of these things, how can I see them then?»</p><p>«Those are not exclusively your memories. These are things I saw. Well, I wasn’t alive when they happened, not anymore, but I’ve seen these things from the afterlife, if I can call it like that.»</p><p>«Oh…» she managed to say. She got on her feet. Surrounding the tall skyscraper now, there wasn’t any other building, just whiteness. «Wait, what happened here?»</p><p>«You’ve passed the critical point. You’re going to survive, no matter what. The city of the afterlife, at least that’s what your subconscious thinks, is no longer an available option. You just have to take the next step.»</p><p>Suddenly, at one end of the pool, a diving board appeared. «So, what you are implying is that if I jumped off the building I would’ve died in real life too, but if I launch myself into the water I’ll come back to life?»</p><p>«It’s not that easy. You’ll have to dive down deep, deeper than you can even imagine. You couldn’t do this just by jumping from the side of the pool. That’s why, when your body’s ready, you will need a diving board.»</p><p>She pondered for a minute on the idea of waking up. «Will I remember the things I’ve seen here?»</p><p>«I seriously doubt it. After all, you were still technically unconscious. You may have some vague memory, but most of the things I said, my existence itself and most of your visions will be lost forever. Don’t worry though, I’m pretty sure you won’t suffer for this.»</p><p>«But I don’t want to forget you» Marinette cried.</p><p>«It’s not that big of a deal, don’t worry. It will be better for you. But do that on your own time, don’t rush. Just you must know, there are people waiting for you, you know?»</p><p>Marinette was crying. She stood still for a couple of minutes, trying to recompose herself. She couldn’t go back, she had to leave the voice.</p><p>«Since I’m going to forget everything, at least tell me your name. Who are you?» she screamed.</p><p>The Voice looked sad. He let the brilliant light wash off his skin, to reveal a middle-aged man. «My name’s Thomas. Thomas Wayne. I am your grandfather.»</p><p>Marinette couldn’t resist anymore. She run towards the man and hugged him. Tears stopped running off her face. «I’ll never forget you, grandad.»</p><p>She couldn’t look back. She breathed heavily and started climbing on the steps. She arrived to the top, and the water looked way too far away. She tried to look back, but the building she once was on was nowhere to be seen. As far as she could see, there was just water. She took a long breath. Running as fast as she could, she splashed into the now warm water and opened her eyes. Slowly, she started swimming towards the bottom, where the liquid looked reddish. The water became denser and denser, until it became blood. She lost her senses.</p><p>She woke up in a long corridor, with only a small white source of light that was located at the very end of the infinite hallway. She started running. As she run, memories started hitting her.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>«There they are, now it's your job, officer Raincomprix.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The police officer shook his head. «Thank you, Ladybug and Chat Noir. Without you, arresting those three would've been impossible.» The officer and a couple other policemen brought the three thieves in their van.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Marinette started slowing down, when a big bull started following her. She started running faster again, but the white light still looked light years away.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>«Hey, LB. You remember when I told you about that girl I wanted to date?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Yeah, kitty. That was what, a month ago?»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«We have officially broken up. We didn't feel anything for each other but affection and admiration. And there's still a big problem with you, milady.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Oh, Chaton If only you knew who wears the mask, you would be so disappointed."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Marinette tripped on her feet. Behind her, the big bull turned into a bunch of bees. She started running again.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>«What happened, Chloè? You, sitting next to me? Willingly? This must be the end of the world.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I'm sorry. I'm trying to be a good person, bit it just... isn't working. It's ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. I am really trying, I want to change for you, Ladybug. And everybody seems to just ignore me, even Sabrina.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«What do you mean? I am not Ladybug.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I don't believe you. Who else could she be?»</em>
</p><p> </p><p>She stopped to breath. As she turned back, a red eyed version of Tom Dupain was following her, his rolling pin in his hands. She run and run.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>«Marinette! Stop playing that damned videogame, can't you see that I need your help with the macarons? Jesus, you're always so...»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Sorry, dad. I'll be back to work in a second.» Marinette got up and turned off the console.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«I need your help now, so just move your lazy ass here and don't expect me to believe any of the lame excuses that your mother gives for you!»</em>
</p><p> </p><p>She fell down on the floor. The man was nowhere to be seen now. A black butterfly now flew towards her. She was a bout to be akumatized. She closed her eyes.</p><p>«Cataclysm!» a voice screamed.</p><p>She slowly opened her lids, expecting to find Chat Noir.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>«It's our love that did this to the world milady.»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«The simple truth is your don't love me anymore, so I might as well destroy me, you, our memories, everything!»</em>
</p><p>
  <em>«Save me.»</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Chat Blanc started following her. That was her worst fear, the only one capable of rejecting her soulmate and renounce to her dreams. That was the only thing she would always fear and would never be able to tell anybody else about, it was her secret, something she had to fight alone every day. So, she run, and run, not allowing herself to look back to him, even though his maniacal laughs gave her chills.</p><p>With the last force she had in her body, she sprinted to the light, that looking closer was a fully opened portal. She turned back just in time to see the white suited guy still, looking at her half-phased through the white light.</p><p>«I love you» she murmured, before disappearing forever.</p><p> </p><p>As she opened her eyes again, she realized one thing: she was floating. She was now dressed with a white, large dress. She also noticed she was slowly descending and was surrounded by what looked like a night sky.</p><p>Every memory she had passed in front of her: her first day at the kindergarten, her first ballet lesson, the day she learned how to sew, her first friends and her first days of school, the day her brother was born, the first day of middle school, her first Christmas sleepover, the day she became Ladybug, the umbrella, all the villains she had fought, her very first kiss, her failed attempt to date Luka, the summer she had passed with Chat Noir.</p><p>All of these memories felt vivid and warm. She felt like she would've been able to touch them, if only she stretched her hand far enough. But before she had any time to try it, she realized her floating had reached the end. She planted her feet on what looked like clouds and started wandering around. She found a small path between the clouds and she stepped fiercely towards that direction. After a couple of seconds, many gold and marble statues separated in two lines appeared, bowing down when she passed between them.</p><p>She followed the path, and arrived to what looked like a golden gate, opened just for her. She run into it, and then there was just light.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette opened her eyes. They hurt for seeing the light that filtered through the windows, and she had to blink many times before being able to look around. She didn't recognize the place she was in, where was she? She looked down at herself: she was dressed with a light blue gown and had different tubes attached to one of her arms. The other one felt like there was something heavy on top of it. She turned around and saw that there was a man sleeping next to her bed with his hand interwined with hers. The main problem was that she had no idea of who he was or who he could ever be.</p><p>«<em>Excuse-moi</em>?» she tried saying, but he didn't answer.</p><p>«Ehm, sorry to disturb you sir» she said, and finally the black-haired man woke up and almost had a heart attack.</p><p>«You're awake.»</p><p>«Thank you for stating the obvious, but can you please tell me, where am I? And most importantly who are you?»</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>May these words be the first</em>
</p><p>
  <em>To find your ears</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The world is brighter than the sun</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Now that you're here</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Though your eyes will need some time to adjust</em>
</p><p>
  <em>To the overwhelming light surrounding us</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I'll give you everything I have</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I'll teach you everything I know</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I promise I'll do better</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I will always hold you close</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But I will learn to let you go</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I promise I'll do better</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm 100% sure that Bruce and Sabine's music is Hey there Delilah for no reason so uhm... chile anyways so.<br/>Also, you can't convince me that Light or Daughter by Sleeping at Last are not songs Bruce would sing to Marinette.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Uncertainty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Marinette wakes up and has many revelations about herself.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow, this chapter has been a real pain. I'm still unsure about what I'm going to do, because Marinette has just had the worse news in her life and she still hasn't processed most of the things, like she still doesn't know that she's in America or that a new Hawkmoth is going around Paris. Well, enjoy the start of the Angstynette™ chapters :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her black hair fell off her shoulders as she raised herself on her arms. «Sorry. About waking you up, I mean.»</p><p>«There’s no problem. I am Bruce. I’ll explain everything later, now you need to be checked.»</p><p>The man got up, and quickly left the room. She heard a soft chatter outside her closed door, but couldn’t understand what was being said.</p><p>A middle-age woman with brown hair and a white coat on entered the room. «Hello, Marinette. My name is Roxanne Meyer, I’m your doctor. You can understand what I’m saying, right?» Marinette nodded. «Good, your father has told me you can speak.»</p><p>«I haven’t seen my father yet. Where are my parents?»</p><p>«Oh, so you don’t know. I understand. Well, I’ll need to check you for a couple of seconds, is that ok?»</p><p>«No problem.»</p><p>«Ok, can you move your arms?» Marinette extended her arms and bended her arms one at a time.</p><p>«Now can you try and move your hands?» The girl had full control of her upper body.</p><p>«Now, you can feel your legs, right? Ok, we can try getting you up on your feet. Give me your hands. Don’t worry.»</p><p>The girl put her fragile wrists in the doctor’s hand. As she pulled her away from her bed, she gently laid her small feet on the floor. She made a small, unstable step, then another. Slowly, the doctor let her arms free, and Marinette walked weakly for another couple of seconds, bringing with her her IV. The doctor praised her and made her go back to her bed.</p><p>Doctor Meyer checked her pulse and slowly detached the IV from her arm. «You must be hungry.»</p><p>«Yes, very much, madame.»</p><p> «Ok then, stay here, I’ll have someone bring you some proper breakfast. It’s best for now if you don’t get up too often, you have to be careful. We’ll see in a day or two.» The woman left the room, shutting the door behind her back.</p><p>«Tikki… hey, Tikki, you there?» she whispered.</p><p>The red kwami appeared on her owner’s lap. «Of course, Marinette. Who do you think has cured you?»</p><p>«Oh, you’re fantastic. But, just to know, where are we? Why is everybody talking in English here?» Marinette still couldn’t wrap her head around all the information she had just received. She vaguely remembered the way she had fallen almost three weeks prior, and now she was supposed to understand where she was and how in the world did she end up there.</p><p>«I don’t know precisely. I’ve heard the people around you telling you were going to America, for better treatment and these things» answered the kwami, floating around her holder’s shoulders.</p><p>Marinette shook her head. «That doesn’t make sense. I mean- I don’t have any relative or friend in the USA, and also here healthcare isn’t even public.»</p><p>Both stood in silence for a couple of seconds.</p><p>Then, Marinette almost screamed. «Oh my god! How long have I been in a coma? I can’t believe I was so preoccupied by the language and everything that I forgot the most important question.»</p><p>Her holder hadn’t been awake for even an hour and she already was so done. «Three weeks, Marinette, three weeks.»</p><p> </p><p>«Where’s my phone?»</p><p>«Are there any clothes that I can wear? I can’t go around looking like I just gave birth!»</p><p>«God, is my hair acceptable? It’s probably a nest. A big, fluffy, never going to loosen nest. Yep, definitely.»</p><p>«They told me they would bring me some food, why’s no one here?»</p><p>Marinette was already panicking. Tikki was trying her best to comfort her, but she immediately heard the door opening.</p><p>A man dressed in a suit entered the room, bringing with him a serving cart, which had a tray on top of it. Three croissants and a hot cup of chocolate milk were disposed on it.</p><p>«Hello, mademoiselle Cheng. I am Alfred Pennyworth, your family’s butler. Here’s your breakfast.»</p><p>Marinette hid herself under the thin sheet. «I am very sorry, monsieur, sir, ehm… you must be mistaking me for someone else. My family doesn’t have a butler.»</p><p>The man shook his head, and handed her the tray. «No mistakes, miss. I’d love to explain everything, but it’s really not my place to tell you.»</p><p>«Oh, no problem, I think. Can I know where my mom is, please?» she asked politely.</p><p>«Unfortunately, she can’t be here at the moment. But if you want to, after your breakfast, you can make a call.»</p><p>Marinette looked down at the white, square plate in the glass tray. She could feel her stomach growling, she had not touched food in too much, and certainly being fed via tubes wasn’t exactly like eating a crispy croissant.</p><p>She bit the pastry. It tasted very good, despite her mouth being still dry and insensitive. She devoured the first croissant, which had a pistachio cream inside. She could say that they even tasted better than her father's. She would never admit that out loud though. After a couple of minutes, she had gulped down also the chocolate and custard ones. She drank the milk as if her life depended on it, gaining an amused look from Alfred. Sugars almost immediately affected her, making her feel more alive and energized than before.</p><p>The butler collected the tray. «I suggest you have a bath. Not the shower, it's still not safe enough for you. It's the second door on the right once you come out of here. There should be some clothes there.»</p><p>«Thank you, eh... sir.»</p><p>The man nodded, smiling politely. He got out of the room with the cart, and Marinette softly put on the pair of white slippers that were placed at the end of her bed. She slowly started walking towards the door. As she opened it, she found herself in a long corridor, with a floor that looked pristine and almost black. The walls were covered by a blue wallpaper with a silver design, that just felt like it was really expensive. She wobbled many times, since it was still difficult for her to stay in balance, until she opened the door. The bathroom looked even fancier, even if it looked a bit too modern compared to the rest of the house. It had been recently renovated, and it was completely black: black tiles on the walls, black marble on the floor, the furniture was all black and even the white light didn’t make it look any lighter, in fact it made the silver, matt-looking taps stand out even more.</p><p>She scanned the place, searching for two things: a bath towel and the clothes Alfred had talked about. She found a big blue towel and a bag, which she assumed contained her clothes. She then turned around and saw herself in the mirror: if possible, she got thinner, her once squishy cheeks felt now empty, thankfully the bags under her eyes had disappeared, but the thing she noticed the most was her hair. It had gotten quite long over the last months, she had to admit, but definitely not like that. Her hair arrived now to the end of her back, and that wasn’t something she could explain. In three weeks, it was physically impossible for hair to get that long.</p><p>«Oh, you’ve noticed it. I’m sorry, I have healed you but magic always leaves her trace behind. And… that was the small price to pay. You can chop it all off, let’s just hope no one else has noticed it. It would be very hard to explain.» Tikki sat on top of the bag, her tiny arms pressed together embarrassed.</p><p>Marinette got undressed. «It’s no big deal. I like it.»</p><p>She turned on the water and let it fill the bath tub, then she dropped some of the bubble bath inside and dropped herself in the warm liquid. A shiver passed through her body, she had already felt this sensation, but she couldn’t quite remember when that happened. Not that it mattered anyway.</p><p>Half an hour later, she came out of the water, and dried herself. There was a hairdryer posed somewhere behind the shower, and she attempted to dry her jet-black, long hair, but it ended up being more difficult than usual, since she was used to her shorter hair and she was still very frail.</p><p>After that, she opened the bag, revealing a pair of black Levi’s, a black turtleneck with a Versace gold pattern coming down the sleeves and a pair of black designer ankle boots. Whoever had prepared this, loved black and had a ton of money to throw away. A lot of question formed in her head, the most prominent one being “Who the fuck had made all of this?”, soon followed by “Why the fuck did someone give her fucking designer clothes?” and by “What the fuck is happening?” being the third.</p><p>As she put on the clothes, she immediately came out of the bathroom. And now, she had no clue what to do, or where she was. She got back to the room she knew, but before entering she was stopped by the butler.</p><p>«Miss, let me show you your new room.» He started walking in the opposite direction from the way she came. She hurried up and followed him.</p><p>As she thought, as they got out of that corridor, the place started looking more modern, still fancy and expensive, but less like an old house.</p><p>The place was really overwhelming and made Marinette feel like a small ant trying to cross a mountain. At least, a pretty garden and some green areas that peaked from the windows made her feel slightly more comfortable. She had understood she wasn't on the ground floor by the way the grass and the luxurious car was parked in the near courtyard looked from the windows. The butler stopped in front of a dark wood door.</p><p>«Here’s your room, miss. Feel free to get yourself comfortable. I’ll go take the phone, so you can call your mother.»</p><p>The man turned around and the girl hesitated. She was kind of scared of what was happening. Was all of this just a dream?</p><p>She pulled down the handle. The room was… interesting. It wasn’t decorated much, it felt still kind of anonymous and impersonal, but the size compensated that. It was bigger than her whole living room, with two doors on each side of the fireplace that was placed on the wall next to the entrance door. There was a big round bed with light grey sheets, and a striped carpet on the dark parquet. There were big black windows, that were the oldest looking thing in the room, and the walls were of an oof-white, grayish color. It was impressive, especially thanks to the gigantic crystal chandelier that came down from the ceiling. Glancing quickly at the doors, she found out that one was a big walk-in closet and the other led to a square large bathroom. The only place that could be compared was maybe Adrien’s room, but she wasn’t sure which one of the places was bigger.</p><p>“Rich people” was the only thing she could think about, mockingly. Like, how could they have so many spaces? And why did they always leave empty spaces that could fit an entire piano in it? She would never understand.</p><p>She launched herself on the big, round (why the hell would a bed be round?) bed, before realizing her legs still weren’t strong enough to let her do that. Thankfully, she collapsed on the mattress.</p><p>«Marinette!» screamed Tikki, rushing to her holder’s side. «Be careful! You still have to heal properly; you just broke your limbs.»</p><p>«You’re right, Tikki. It’s just that I feel… so strangely good for having just woken up from a coma.»</p><p>«I know, Marinette, but please, take better care of yourself. Being Ladybug is already exhausting as it is, but now everything is way worse, school is getting difficult since this is your last year of collège, and with your online shop, your ballet course, helping your fam-» Tikki stopped herself. She had just remembered something.</p><p>«Is everything ok Tikki?» asked Marinette, tilting her head.</p><p>«Uhm… yep. But there’s someone coming, I’d better hide!» Tikki hid under one of the pillows.</p><p>Some moments later, Alfred Pennyworth came back handing a tablet to the girl. Marinette immediately took it, thanking the man too many times, before opening the call app.</p><p>She didn’t remember her mother’s number: she had learned it a while ago, but she had forgotten it during the last months. Thankfully, there were many numbers saved in the tablet’s booklist, most of them made her gulp in surprise: famous designers, many businessmen and CEO’s she had heard of on the news. Then, between all those numbers, the name “Sabine Cheng” appeared. She started the videocall.</p><p>«<em>Allo? </em><em>Qui est?</em>» asked the woman’s voice from the other end of the phone.</p><p>«Hi, mom, it’s good to hear you.»</p><p>«Oh my God… Mari, you’re awake. You’re awake.»</p><p>«Yes, I am awake and well mom. But I am a bit disoriented, I have no idea of where I am. How are dad and Jemie doing mom?»</p><p>«Oh… they’re doing well, yeah. Jemie is at Gina’s house. About your father… we have to talk. Do you feel like doing it?»</p><p>«Of course, mom. Why’s that?»</p><p>«It’s because… me and Tom have divorced. I think you know about our continuous arguments, and other problems. He’s been treating you unfairly, honey.»</p><p>«Ah… I’m sorry about that. What will happen to me and Jemie now? Are we going to stay with dad or you?»</p><p>«Well, darling, that’s another thing I have to tell you about. Jemie is going to stay with me for most of the time, and you’ll be staying always with me.»</p><p>«Why?»</p><p>«Because… Mari, just promise me you won’t be too enraged, ok? It’s all for your safety.»</p><p>«What-»</p><p>«Tom isn’t your real father. I’ve lied to you, and I’m sorry. I’ve done this because I wanted to protect you. Your biological father is a very… powerful and dangerous person, and I couldn’t let you know the truth.»</p><p>«Who?» Marinette’s voice turned cold, even though tears were starting building up under her eyes.</p><p>«He’s the owner of the house you’re in. He’s paid for your cares. Your father is Bruce, Bruce Wayne.»</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. First day in the family</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Marinette starts meeting her newfound family, Tim makes some discoveries.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow I sould really do my homeworks. I've decided to keep the angst at an acceptable level today, no need to thank me.<br/>Jk, enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>«I’m sorry honey, I really wish I could have told you this in person, but you deserve to know the truth.»</p><p>«Sorry mom. I… I need to stay alone for now, please.»</p><p>She ended the call. Tears were streaming down her face and she was violently trembling.</p><p>«Oh Marinette, I’m so sorry, I…» Tikki started.</p><p>Marinette shut her up. «You knew, didn’t you?» Tikki didn’t answer. «Of course. Please leave me alone, I need to think for a bit.»</p><p>Tikki lowered her antennas in shame and phased through the wall, entering the closet. Marinette curled up, starting to cry. It hadn’t even been two hours and things were already going to fuck themselves. She needed to process all that happened.</p><p>Tears upon tears started rolling down her cheeks, as she thought about everything. Tom wasn't her father. It wasn't that surprising, she had already pondered about the possibility, but she had mainly put aside the way her father treated her distantly, simply telling herself he was too occupied with his work to have time for her or that he just thought she was old enough to be more independent. But now, he had a clear reason to treat her harshly, especially compared to her brother. Half-brother now. Wow. Lots of things were now clearer. But why had Sabine hidden the truth? After all, the man was just...</p><p>She gasped. The realization hit her in the face: Bruce Wayne was her father, the billionaire, CEO and most influent person of Gotham City, if not the whole New Jersey. That meant... that she had more brothers. God, she remembered reading about him in one of her English books, in one of those stupid texts that are way too easy for the level they are assigned to. It had mentioned that he had what, five children? Four of them were adopted, only one was his biological son. Wait, if she was in the Waynes' mansion that meant that probably most of them were there too. Oh, she couldn't do this. Nope, not at all. They would all hate her and she would be doomed, they would kick her out and never let her in their lives. She would have to fly to Paris all alone and...</p><p>Paris. How could she forget. She was Ladybug first and Marinette second. And she now remembered she had done a fatal mistake that day. Why on earth did she bring with her the butterfly brooch? Fuck. She had to find a way to go back to Paris, and she had to do it now. But how? She was thousands of kilometers away from home, in a place she didn't know and without any way to contact her friends. She needed Alix. God, she was useless. Why didn't she die? That would've been ten thousand times better than having to deal with all of this. She could just imagine the face that her classmates would've made the moment she would step in their class again: they would all call her a liar, say that she had done this to gain attention, because Lila had just found the new love of her life or she had just invented the eternal youth potion or some shit like that. She wanted to go back to sleep in hope she'd never ever wake up again.</p><p>But then, she remembered Chat Noir. Her anchor, her savior, the boy she loved so much. He had always said that he had a distant family but he loved it nonetheless, or that in his class there was a very bad person, that he wanted to help become better. She remembered that he taught her to never judge a book by its cover, and that even a clown like her Chaton could be in reality a very thoughtful and mature person. He never pressured her to be someone she wasn't, or to be way more than she could, he was the only one helping her with her guardian duties. And his puns, dear Lord, they were terrible. Not a single one of them was actually funny, but they all managed to put a smile on her face.</p><p>Why was she thinking about this now? It was almost ironic, how the boy she had let down so many times was the only thing keeping her sane.</p><p>Well, maybe it wasn't a that bad. Maybe she was just overthinking it. If they didn't want her, why would they ever take care of her in the first place? Maybe they weren't that bad. Maybe it was all going to be better. Oh, she wished. She had to try, at the very least.</p><p>She went to the bathroom and washed her face. She still looked way too pale, but she at least looked kind of alive.</p><p>Someone knocked at the door. She immediately dried her face with a near towel and picked up the tablet, ready to return it. But instead of finding Alfred as she thought, a man in his twenties appeared. He was way too tall for her to look at. He smiled.</p><p>«Hello, Marinette. Do you mind coming with me? I'd like to talk to you» he asked politely, and she nodded, smiling.</p><p>They took the stairs and arrived to the lower floor, entering a big room, that was the living room, with black and brown leather couches and a pair of white velvet armchairs. a big fireplace was placed in front of the biggest couch, and on the back, there were multiple libraries and a piano. The place looked big enough to host a ball. And knowing how clumsy she could be, she was afraid of just breathing in the same direction of most of the decorations.</p><p>«Please, sit down. You're still healing you shouldn't tire yourself out» he said, smiling softly.</p><p>Marinette sat down on one of the armchairs, and the black haired man sat down next to her.</p><p>«I'm Richard Grayson, but everyone calls me Dick. I'm your oldest brother, well, not biologically. But I understand, it must be really overwhelming to find out that your father is both not who you think he was and a billionaire at the same time.» Dick smiled, getting comfortable on the armchair.</p><p>«Yeah, you're right. I still have to process everything that is happening. I was in a coma and that's still the strangest thing to wrap my head around, it didn't feel like almost three weeks had passed at all.»</p><p>«Well, I doubt it is. But I’m sure you’ll feel better soon, don’t worry. Do you mind telling me if you feel any pain?»</p><p>«I just feel a bit of a headache, I think it’s because I haven’t seen any light in a while. Can… can you tell me what day it is?» Marinette started fidgeting with her fingers, she wanted to know exactly when she could be back in France.</p><p>«It’s the 20<sup>th</sup> of December, in five days we’ll have a Christmas party. Well, it’s more like a gala, but there will be many people, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. Also, Bruce will probably avoid talking to you. He can be very overprotective at times, but the press is already talking about you, it’s safer for you if he doesn’t speak to you.» He shot her a glance, trying to understand her feelings.</p><p>«Oh no, I don’t have enough time» she muttered under her breath. Dick moved his head, clearly not understanding the words she had whispered. «Sorry, it’s nothing.»</p><p>Suddenly, a person entered the room. Alfred cleared his throat. «I’m sorry for the interruption, lunch is ready.»</p><p>Four hours had already passed from when she woke up. Incredible how fast time could pass. She got up, but Dick stood still. «You’re not coming?» she asked politely.</p><p>He shook his head. «No, sorry Marinette. I have to go back to do some work. Also, I’m used to eat much later.»</p><p>She nodded, starting to walk along the tall man. The dining room wasn’t far away, but she still needed to be guided around the manor. As she entered the majestic dining room, she noticed the big dark wooden table: it probably could host more than thirty people. At the head of the table there was the man she had seen earlier: he had changed his clothes, and now was wearing a white shirt, a blue necktie and a pair of black pants. She was officially scared as hell: that was her father, and also the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne. Marinette started trembling. Well, it was already better than Tom, who’d come to lunch once every two or three weeks, as he usually ate in the bakery, and the times he came he rarely talked, if not asking Jemie about school. As always, Sabine would scold him and they would fight, because he always came back in the house with his apron and flour dusted clothes.</p><p>Marinette inhaled deeply. She took one step further, and realized that he wasn’t alone. There was a kid, probably a little older than her brother Jeremie, that looked very similar to her, with a slightly darker skin and just a few centimeters shorter. He was wearing a red t-shirt and a pair of dark jeans. Was that one of her brothers? She gulped, scared as hell that he would be disappointed in her, or worse, wouldn’t talk to her.</p><p>She sat down on the chair next to her father, the only one that had a plate and a whole set of glasses. «Hi» she murmured, lowering her head.</p><hr/><p>«So, you’ve called me for what?» Dick leaned against the desk.</p><p>«Yeah, Tim, you have to stop ruining my plans at the last minute possible, you ruin all my plans.» Jason sat on a chair, in the least composed way he could.</p><p>«And let me guess, your plan was not doing anything all day? Or maybe just run around as always?» Tim commented sarcastically.</p><p>«None of your business, Drake. So, you want to spill it out or what?»</p><p>Tim intertwined his hands in front of his face, a sadistic expression on his face. «Well, what do you have to offer for my information?»</p><p>«Quit joking, Tim, you must have reasons to call us here, if you send a text that literally starts with “urgent”. All caps.» Dick crossed his arms, waiting.</p><p>«Maybe I just missed my dear, sweet siblings.» Cassandra punched him. «Ok, ok, no need to be violent.»</p><p>«Better for you» she said, sitting on the desk.</p><p>«Ok, so I’ve done some research after what Stephanie has told me. I’ve read a thing or two about Marinette’s history: it’s kind of hard not to know her if you’re from Paris- I mean, she’s one of the closest friends of Adrien Agreste, the son of Gabriel, is the famous chef Césaire’s daughter’s best friend, is currently designing Nadja Chamack’s wedding dress, and people speculate she might be the famous anonymous designer Coccinelle Rouge. But now, it gets weirder: if you take into consideration her class, you realize that the local supervillain, Hawkmoth, who had the power to transform people in magical supervillains, has targeted them more than any of the other classes. And our girl has thankfully never been affected. But why would he do it? Why was this class his main target? The whole school has been targeted, and that’s not surprising, since it’s one of the most important one in Paris, but in that class only two people haven’t been akumatized, as they like to say. Thankfully, the villain has retired and has surrendered to the two main heroes, but now more than ever theories are going around about who are the superheroes, and the secondary ones. It’s just frustrating, because I’ve tried in every way, but you can’t analyze the face of the people under that thin fucking mask. It’s nearly impossible to understand who these teenagers are.»</p><p>«That’s… a lot, actually. Wow, I thought she would be the most normal one out of the group, guess not.» Dick commented.</p><p>Both Cassandra and Tim nodded. «Considering her group of friends, I’m afraid for her safety. We have to talk to Bruce.»</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Teenagers scare (the living sh*t out of me)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Marinette finally meets her little brother. Nino, Chloé and Alix are teenagers and investigators.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeally sorry for uploading this so late, but I've started going to school again and it has taken away much of my time. I really hope I'll be able to publish a new chapter soon.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She sat down at the table. Now, she should have seen more than two people, if her memory didn't betray her, but yet only her "father" and what looked like her little brother- half brother, to be precise- were present for lunch. And, neither of them looked like they had any intention of talking. Ok, fair. She didn't always talk, and also, being her clumsy self, she would probably spit everything or start drooling if she tried talking while eating. Not like she wasn't used to silent meals, like every time Tom came for lunch. Or when everyone would just leave her alone eating at the school cafeteria when Lila had one of her stories to tell. Most of the times, Alix joined her, but it was for little time , as the pink haired girl usually went to meet her other million friends in the other classes. She was sure that either Adrien or Chloè would join her in a second, if only they didn't have to go home to eat for "rIch people's motives". Which she honestly understood. School food sucked.<br/>
As her plate arrived, she wasn't quite sure of what she was about to try. Who had made this food? Probably a personal chef of some way. God, she missed having to make cookies for her da... Tom. Even though it took away a lot of her time, she always enjoyed it. She bit the souffle: it was soft, and tasted like spinach. Fondue dripped from the top of it, covering some of the way too sweet taste of the souffle. She tried to eat as fast and as politely she could, not messing anything up.<br/>
«It's delicious» she outright said, pointing at her plate with her fork. Bruce weakly smiled at her. The boy however, if possible, frowned even deeper.<br/>
Damien was indeed jealous. He had fought for months to be even at the very least accepted in the family, and to Marinette it just looked so absurdly easy, so simple, like she was born to do this. This thing wasn’t fair, at all. She had been here for about two weeks and everyone already trusted her, loved her, would raze Gotham for her. And when he first came? Everyone was suspicious and cold. Did she deserve all of this? Certainly not. But he watched the world from his rage-colored glasses, and in fact it hadn’t been all fun and games for the girl in question.</p><p>Bruce had watched his two children for a couple of minutes, waiting for one of them to speak. Seeing the apparent calm in the table, he didn’t want to interfere. Anyways, it would have been better if he at the very least introduced them to one another.</p><p>«Sorry, I totally forgot to introduce you two. Marinette, Damien. Damien, she’s Marinette. Your biological sister.» He didn’t hold any expectation for his youngest.</p><p>«H-hi. Sorry, I didn’t want to sound rude. It’s all very new, but it’s a pleasure to meet you, Damien.» Marinette smiled softly, putting her black hair behind her ear.</p><p>«Tch, whatever.» The twelve years old boy shrugged.</p><p>Bruce didn’t held any expectation, yet Damien always succeeded in lowering them at any given occasion. He realized the situation had gotten tense. Marinette didn’t say a word, but she had whispered a soft “oh”, before lowering her head and focusing herself on her plate. Damien, on the other hand, looked away as if he was distracted by something that definitely wasn’t there, on the other side of the room. He was gobbling down an enormous quantity of food at the speed of light. Bruce Wayne had decided that the two needed to sort it out alone. Or at least, that’s what he hoped for. He finished his lunch, leaving with a silent nod.</p><p>The two kids were now alone. Marinette ate quietly, trying not to make eye contact with the boy who looked like he was either about to stab her with a force or to choke her with his own bare hands. She wasn’t exactly intimidated by him, she just didn’t want that. It wasn’t one of her friendly banter with her brother, that always ended up with him either asking her for some homework or dumping his duties on her. No, this looked more like one of those crime stories where the assassin plans to murder his entire family for their grandmother’s inheritance. Nothing about this felt like an home. And that certainly didn’t feel like a brother.</p><p>She was about to leave, having finished her meal. But he called her. «Cheng.»</p><p>She immediately jumped, slowly turning on herself. «Yes?»</p><p>«Hear me out. You amount to nothing. Literally. You’re here for money? Good, because that’s all you’re going to get. If you think this can be your “perfect family” because the one you had before wasn’t good enough, let me tell you that you should just go and try this fuckery somewhere else. Here all of us have suffered, and now you, the perfect, kind and innocent princess arrive and fuck everything up. This place isn’t a playground or a bank, so if you believe you can be a real Wayne whatsoever, then you’re in the wrong. You don’t deserve this by no means, and it’s better you just grow the fuck up and go back to where you came from. You’ll have your mommy to protect you, won’t you? Just- leave, because you don’t amount to anything and you’re not welcome here. You will never be» said the boy, smacking his hand against the table before leaving.</p><p>Marinette was utterly… confused? There was a vast mixture of feelings forming in her chest. Was he right? Was she not enough to be a Wayne? She should just go back to be the baker’s presumed daughter and accept her destiny. But she never wanted to be a Wayne, let alone be a part of this stupid so called family where she wasn’t welcome.</p><p>As she left the room, a slightly older boy appeared next to the door. «Don’t pay attention to him. He’s just a salty little bitch.»</p><p>She dried up tears she hadn’t known had started falling off her cheeks. «Sorry. Who are you?»</p><p>«Jason, but call me whatever you want. I’m your dead brother, nice to meet you.»</p><p>«You’re… dead?»</p><p>«Well, technicalities, anyways don’t mind what that angry chihuahua says. He’s just a little bitch who doesn’t like anyone. You’re more than welcome here, I know that even if I’m basically never there.»</p><p>«You’re one of my brothers, aren’t you?» she asked, her voice still shaky.</p><p>«Yes, you’re right. And, before I forget…»</p><p>He turned around and held a bouquet of flowers in front of her face.</p><p>«I always keep my promises, especially if it’s for a beautiful, stunningly exceptional beauty like you. Milady.»</p><p>In the fraction of a second, her face turned completely red, and she held her breath. Why did she have to get so flustered? «I- uh… thak-than-thanks to you! I mean- you’re welcome. No! You’re thank…»</p><p>Jason started laughing. «Sorry, bluebell, but you’re just too funny to deal with. I really should be going now, but don’t think this is the last time I’ll see you as red as Superman’s underwear.»</p><p>«Oh, come one, you can’t be serious!» she yelled in frustration. Unfair. It was just unfair.</p>
<hr/><p>Nino got up that morning even less lively than the last three days, and let him say, they were absolutely awful. The night before, it was his and Queen Bee’s turn on patrolling. As much as he could convince himself that the girl would never change, he wasn’t stubborn enough not to notice the way she had completely changed since Lila’s arrival. When she had finally understood that all the hatred she had for Marinette was just envy, things got more normal between the two, one could say the two had become best friends. Alya instead, was slowly drifting away, from Marinette and from himself: at the beginning, she understood that Lila wasn’t perfect and stuck with her old best friend, but the moment Marinette started really struggling, she became Lila’s new best friend. And Marinette didn’t say anything, but he knew it had hurt her so much, he could read her eyes: they had known each other since kindergarten, of course they would understand each other just by looking at them. Did he have a crush on her? He used to, but now he understood they weren’t soulmates, only Chat Noir could be.</p><p>Back to soulmates…</p><p>He had been looking at Chloé lately, and had started to realize that she was pretty. Ok, he had always known, but now she was starting to really look beautiful. She had finally stopped to put her hair up in a ponytail so high it looked like it could be used as an helicopter propeller, and now looked a lot more like an angel every time she walked, making her blonde locks jump slightly. Yeah, an angel with the temper of a demon, but an angel nonetheless. Her eyes didn’t look anymore like they were always angry and she had stopped wearing that damn lip-gloss that made her look pale as a snowball, she now sometimes smiled. Not one of her sly smiles, a real one. Small, most of the times sad and melancholic. She had stopped screaming in rage when she was talking, instead you could talk with calmer, sadder Chloé for hours now. If you walked out in the school backyard during the second break, you could find her smoking a cigarette hidden between the lyceé students. He would sometimes join her, but would never admit it to anyone. Alix sometimes came with them, usually preferring to write all over the walls while they were breaking the rules in their own stupid way. But hey, they were teenagers, life was also made of this.</p><p>He got up from his bed and checked his phone: a missed call from Adrien, a new text from Kim and a couple of messages from the class groupchat. Nothing out of the ordinary. He turned around and put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a college jacket, ruffled his hair and went to have breakfast. As usual, his brother Chris had already got his bowl and was watching the tv and letting his biscuits melt in the milk. The sight made him feel nauseous, and he ended up putting a whole croissant in his mouth before leaving for the bathroom. As he got out of his house with his backpack on one of his shoulders, his mother kissed him on the forehead just before he wore his usual headphones. He found himself out of his building and immediately he noticed something strange. A blonde girl showed up from behind him.</p><p>«Nino?» Chloé asked, her hands holding her white bag.</p><p>«Hello. What the hell are you doing outside of my house, stalking me?» he answered, before crossing his arms.</p><p>«You’re implying I would be the one following you? Good one Lahiffe, good one.»</p><p>«Quit joking, Chlo, your house is literally on the other side of the neighborhood. You’re very suspicious.»</p><p>«Ok, calm down Lahiffe, I have just gone to Couffaine’s “house” to buy cigarettes.»</p><p>«Isn’t he still just two years older than us? How could he buy cigarettes?»</p><p>«Yeah, he's still 16, but he has stolen his mother’s sanitary card, so he can buy it from any vending machine.»</p><p>«Still, buying cigarettes from your b-f-f’s ex-boyfriend?»</p><p>«The only way you can keep it a secret from Mari, going to someone she doesn’t want to have anything to do with, her asshole ex.»</p><p>They started walking towards the school. «How did Juleka not find out?»</p><p>«Do you really think we met each other in his house? I don’t want to enter in that damn thing ever again. We were at the park near the library.»</p><p>They arrived in front of the school. Nino immediately noticed something, or maybe he should say someone. And that someone was Alya, walking hand in hand with an older boy, first year of lyceè, a certain Blaise he had heard about. One of Lila’s friends, of course.</p><p>He had to admit, even though they had broken up many days ago, it still stung a bit: how could she replace him in no time? Did he mean so little to her or was it Lila's work?</p><p>The French-Italian girl arrived with her group of new victims, and Chloé noticed a small change in her appearance, that being a small, ribbon looking, black brooch. That didn’t set right with her, she had been wearing that thing for too many days for it to be a coincidence.</p><p>«Look, I’m pretty sure I might know who this new “Swallowtail” could be» Chloé stated, her gaze freezing a certain figure.</p><p>«What…» Nino really couldn’t focus anymore: how could Chloé out of all people be so subtle?</p><p>«Isn’t it obvious? It’s Lila. It would just make perfect sense if it was her.»</p><p>Nino pondered about her statement for some seconds: why would she do this? For the same reasons she had been lying all this time.</p><p>«You know what? I want to punch that motherfucker in the face.»</p><p>Chloé caught his wrist in his hand, before dragging him away from the brunette. «There’s no time for this, you’re ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Just come with me, we need to talk to the others before even thinking about just dropkicking Lila. And, Alix has to know about this.»</p><p>She tightened the hold on his wrist. A million butterfly had flown in their chests, and were trying their hardest to get out, failing. It wasn’t until Nathaniel pointed out how the two were still holding hands after having arrived to the class already five minutes before that they separated and sat down.</p><p>Alix emerged from the chaos of students. «We need to talk about something.»</p>
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